I, Incubus
by Aquarius Dragon
Summary: A lustful smile had yet to subside, a peaceful expression yet to evaporate from the eyes of those girls, eternally sleeping, for someone had stolen their hearts…death arrived too soon in this hour of passion. Chapter 25 is up.
1. Prologue

**I, Incubus**

**Summary:** A lustful smile had yet to subside, a peaceful expression yet to evaporate from the eyes of those girls, eternally sleeping, for someone had stolen their hearts…death arrived too soon in this hour of passion.

**Rating:** Written for mature readers, and thus includes violence, sex, and crude humour.

**Disclaimer:** Beyblade and characters belong to the said creators, and thus this fiction is written just for entertainment.

**Note:** The first **ten chapters** are extremely old and were written some **seven** or **eight** years ago. In fact that goes for almost half of the story. Yes, they found their way on FF much later. They need some serious overhaul, but I will not start editing before completing the story.

So newcomers, proceed at your own risk.

**Prologue**

Writhing in agony under the dark sky of the night, the man looked up, peering through the fine white bangs flopping over his forehead. His grayish orbs shone brightly, alive with virile youth.

He clutched his hand to his chest, curling his fingers around the hilt of a long dagger skewered through his still beating heart. A few heavy trickles of blood landed on the grassy ground.

He groaned, firming his grip and building up courage to pull it out of his body. He bit his lower lip, fighting back the howl still trapped in his throat, as he slowly pulled the dagger out. A thin spurt of blood jutted out of his heart, leaving a narrow slit on his chest. Within seconds…it disappeared.

"Still alive…Kai?" a voice came from beyond the thick trees, slightly subdued by the shrill hiss of the wind. A man stepped into the open, his long red hair ablaze in the clasp of night light.

Kai lifted his eyes, shirking them in shrewd cunningness. He sat there, on his knees, wheezing to recover from the mortal wound, now healing and wrenching him away from his death.

"You are such a tenacious bastard Tala," Kai rasped, clenching his bloodied hands.

Tala let out a loud laugh. "It is just that, war is such a messy business. No hard feelings," he said with a cruel smile, pulling out another long dagger from a wide, thick looking sheath.

"I bet it is," Kai said heavily, standing firmly on his feet. He seemed to have recovered completely. "No wonder you still weep for your poor lover."

Tala's face horribly contorted. "You should curse the day your kind spawned, because you became the reason for their slaughter," he snarled, pointing his dagger at Kai's bared chest.

"I won't lose sleep over it, they kind of irritated me," Kai said calmly, pulling the long strip of his torn shirt off his arm.

"I will kill you, only then, she may find peace," Tala whispered, ready for a second stab of his dagger, imbued with poison.

Kai looked at Tala, and his desperate resolve. "Humans, I never could understand the whole sentiment and sensibility of life. Fragile, isn't it?" he mocked, and jumped high into the air, landing like an agile cat on a thirty feet big rock.

Tala chased him too, climbing a tree as fast as a mountain feline. He was also more than just a human. He swung up into the air, and planted his feet only a few meters away from Kai. As soon as he straightened up, he took that murderous stance again.

"Hold that thought," Kai said, looking at a large darker hole a few feet above him, flying in the air. It looked as if something tore open a wound in sky, and now it bled releasing a shrill gale of noise out in the open.

Tala leaped forward, but could not wound the demon that had swiftly disappeared into the hole, leaving him alone under the drape of night.

Sitting alone on the bed, the girl gaped at the handsome young man, standing close to her bed. She admired the fine contours, sharp gray eyes, and the unruly long hair thrown on his shoulder like fine white tangles. His white skin shone like marble against the moonlight.

"Who…who are you?" she choked out, holding up a pillow in defense. "How did you get in here?"

He cocked his head to one side, and darted his gaze around the empty room. Rather lazily, he returned his eyes back to the girl, who looked bewitched and deathly scared. A lusty smile graced his lips. He narrowed his eyes on her, and rasped, "My name is Kai, and you summoned me."

"wha…" she trailed off, thinking something before he interrupted again.

"You do know you summoned an incubus, correct? For your sexual needs?" he asked with a straight face, as if he was asking about the morning weather.

Dumbstruck and confounded, she continued to stare at him. What the hell had they done?


	2. The Summoning

**Chapter One**: The Summoning

**AN:** Well, let's just say I am surprised at the responses. Pleasantly surprised, so, I thank all the reviewers who gave this story a chance.

This chapter, as the title suggests deals with the summoning. So, I have taken one step back to show the process. Read it with an open mind that accepts imagination, because a lot of ingredients are made up and don't exist in real world.

**# # # # #**

It was an odd day today, a very odd day indeed. Hilary the simple girl, who valued virginity and abstinence at least till the holy matrimonial ties were tied, was about to do the unthinkable; summon a demon to satisfy her in her hours of need.

Was such a thing even possible? Her mind was not set, but Mariah, the pink haired wild child of music class was hounding her to go for it, and so were Salima and Jessica. She was a bit too old to stay virgin after all. At twenty six and no hopes to give into Tyson's constant pestering habits, she had decided to go for it.

Of course it was only yesterday when Tyson called her a goody-goody Mother Teresa and what not, when she refused him a mouth-to-mouth tongue bathing session in Professor Takuya's office. Today was different; her resolve was set, and she was determined.

"So, how are the preps going?" Mariah asked, winking her left eye so rapidly that it almost looked busted.

A quick blush rose up to the apple of Hilary's cheek. "Keep it down," she hissed, looking over her shoulder at Tyson who was busy discussing his art project Dragoon with the ever diplomatic Ray, and the pretty much out of it Max.

Tyson looked a bit freakish really, with his cow-licked hairs, tufted bangs, and wild bushy pony-tail. Now his brother Hiro was a different deal. He was handsome, had a job, and probably got laid even. The thought pained her. She was probably the only one left…

Mariah rammed a lollypop in her mouth, and looked over at Tyson. "You are STILL worried about yesterday? Forget it, he's an asshole," she said calmly, eying Ray with a little more enthusiasm than usual.

"You look like a complete Nun, you know that?" Hilary said sarcastically after Mariah rolled the lollypop rather disgustingly the third time.

"Come on, you are too uptight," Mariah said, raking through her purse. "Ready for tonight?"

Hilary looked away, annoyed by her persistence. "You are crazy, it'll never work," she muttered, gazing out into the big yard beyond the cafeteria window.

"It just might," Mariah chocked out, spitting out the remains of her cherry coloured lollypop. It looked sickly dark now. "Besides, it is just for fun."

"Why do you people only find my house for fun?" Hilary raised her hands in air. "It will make the whole room dirty, and where will you find the ingredients?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on Mariah looking back at her with full confidence.

"It is all arranged," she said smugly, giving a flick to her eye-piercing pink dyed hair. The always looked like something borrowed straight from Barbie-land hell.

Hilary lifted her chin a little, raising her eyebrows high until they disappeared behind those brown bangs flopping over her forehead, which was not that small. "What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, as the ingredients were as elusive and gruesome as they came in her list.

Mariah fumbled a page out of her bag. "Jessica arranged the dear's heart," she said in a calm voice, putting the page in front of her face.

"What?" Hilary exclaimed, looking down-right horrified.

"Stop being so over dramatic. You know Jessica's uncle and his hunting hobbies," Mariah said from behind the page before continuing, "we have white moonwort butterfly in a glass globe, pure black lavender oil, a phial of virgin's blood, a tuft of raven's plumes, a vial of black rose water, four threads of pure gold, a black ammonite, four black pearls, a dash of sulphur-vivum, dear's heart boiled down to liquid in a chimenea, Four golden sacrifices, and strands of hair from all of us."

Hilary slapped her hand on her sweaty face; the heat in the room was getting to her head. "Where the hell are you going to get four golden sacrifices?" she asked, her lower lip trembling with anger. This little, doomed-from-the-start fun was a bit too expensive.

"Jessica has taken care of those," Mariah said smiling, folding the paper in her perfectly manicured hands.

"When? How?" Hilary asked, looking quite bewildered.

"She is pretty rich, you know," Mariah said, shoving the paper back inside her gigantic bag, as if Hilary didn't already know about Jessica's Gucci bags and chinchilla coats. "She arranged for most of the expensive ones." She giggled pulling up her sweater's zip till her perky breasts.

"So this is what you people have been doing for the past whole month?" Hilary asked in a heavy accusatory voice that just bounced off the girl sitting across her. Mariah's toothy grin only grew bigger.

"This is gonna be so much fun," Mariah sighed out, clutching her hands to her chest. "I swear it, all of this sounds better than sex with Ray."

Hilary leaned back into the painfully hard chair's back. "I thought you said you'd die the day you even thought that," she mocked, folding her arms across her chest. It was one of those annoying Ray vows of hers, and there were a million of those.

Mariah made a No-way face, before returning to her lunch-time chore of boob-adjustment. She shook her sisters a little, adjusted the zip for the umpteenth time, then finally gave a long hard stare at that huge cleavage before she was thankfully satisfied.

Hilary rolled her eyes, looking annoyed. No matter how hard Mariah tried Ray hardly ever noticed her, the way she wanted to be noticed. "I bet he will notice them now," she paused, averting Mariah's I'll-kill-you-good eyes, "or, you can try harder on that plumber's crack, and you might just poke one of his eyes out."

Mariah's jaw jutted out in anger, she opened her mouth to say something uncultured, but pressed her lips defiantly. "I promised, I won't call you baby Jesus mama, so I'm gonna keep it," she said, puckering up her lips into some sort of hideous pout.

A roar of laughter rose from Tyson and his bandwagon, brining a twinkle in Mariah's eyes. Ray apparently revered his art skills, but Hilary always wondered why that goon was even popular.

She took a deep breath and opened her archaeology journal. It was during her myth studies on local demon folklores that she stumbled upon a dusty old book in black magic collection in the library. Someone had donated a vast collection of those. It was a collector's hobby the librarian told her.

As freakish as those books were, there was something fascinating about them in an eerie way. All the spells were incomplete with the symbols scribbled out, pages made untidy with loopy squiggles, and some of them were torn off…all but this spell. It was complete; not a symbol left out, nothing was missing.

_But why?_ This thought continued to prick her. She lowered her gaze, travelling her eyes on the old, but still intact three pages tucked away perfectly between the pages of her journal. She picked one up, and turned it around… there was nothing odd about them, except for the backside of the final page that was completely black. Someone had soaked it in ink.

The corners of the pages were torn in a zigzag manner; Mariah had done this rather hastily. It was her idea to sneak the pages out of the library, and try the spell…all because of the drawing of a 'hot bishie', as she spelled it that adorned the second page.

Hilary took a deep intake of breath and stole a moment's glace at Mariah whose eyes were glued on Ray again. She returned them on the page, following the long lines stretching out of the incubus. She was providing three crucial ingredients; a small stone sized ruby for the demon's eyes, silver hair, and her blood… along with the moonwort butterfly and a few other things.

The ruby was a gift from her grandmother. Hilary couldn't believe she was actually going to use it for this pagan cookery. She closed her eyes, listening to the tingly beat of her heart. If it worked… it could get exciting. She opened them, feeling a slight twinge of the sunlight in her left eye, and began packing. Night was coming, and she had to make the summoning circle as well. Something inside her was strangely thrilled.

**# # # # #**

Night came fast, brining the shine of full moon along. It played like pearls, lying silently on the small fountain's still water in her front yard. Her house was big, and lovely. They had their own front yard, even a backyard where countless bamboos grew, standing tall over the bonsai trees.

Hilary stood next to her room's window, staring at the reflection of candle's flickering light, and three other girls sitting around it on the squeaky clean wooden floor of her room. Her face tensed for just a moment, before she schooled her emotions completely.

Hilary turned around, and moved her light brown eyes just a little to look at her room's things lumped together at the corner. Her small desk lay on top of her bed with tiny legs that barely made it stand high above the ground. Her expensive red rug was draped over what was left in the room…the rest of it was completely empty for the summoning.

She looked back at her things neatly placed next to four black candles, and a large sheer crystal bottle with White Mountain ash to make the octagon. Mariah was humming her incantation, tying her long pink kissed hair securely with a band. Half of her face was trickling with sweat, glistering at the white candle's light.

Salima sat quietly next to Jessica, reading the details of her part…her eyes fixed on the paper in her hand. Hilary took a deep intake of breath, smelling the incense burning in an iron bowl sitting in front of the closed door. A white plume of smoke rose from it in circles, snaking around the room like slow moving whirls.

Hilary quietly took three steps towards the girls, and sat down next to her bundle of things. She pulled the cork out of the bottle's mouth. An earthy smell of ash rushed out of it. She looked at the girls, who shared a little grin with each other and hastily nodded to begin.

Hilary puffed out the candle, and an instant cloak of darkness fell on the room, save for that flicker of light's memory still dancing in their eyes. She struck the match stick on the matchbox, and it sizzled to life. Slowly she lit four black candles one by one, whispering, "today I ask for your presence in this cloak of darkness." She repeated four times, until all of them were lit, giving off a pale light in darkness.

Others sat quietly, watching her finish the first part. Then Hilary held out the bottle, signaling the girls to take the ash in their fists. All three stretched their sprawling hands, their palms sweaty with anticipation and excitement. Slowly she poured the ash in each hand, and the second session began.

Quickly, they drew an octagon on the ground, with one square pointing out of the other. It had to be exact, or the summoning would not work. Four feet on each side, the ash glowed like silver over the wood. The girls quickly sat at the corners, putting one candle between each pyramid sticking out from the overlapping second square.

The second phase was complete, now they had to wait for the first full moon to shine bright over the octagon. It took a few minutes for the clouds to roll out, and a large sliver of white light sloped down from the window over the ash…it looked beautiful, like spangles of tiny silver and finest of white pearl dust.

"The moon shines bright; let her spread her wings wide, and carry you here on silver wings," Hilary began, drawing a circle in the second square. Carefully she put down a metallic apparatus, holding the fluttering moonwort butter fly on top exactly at the centre. Its wings trembled as it desperately tried to find an exit.

Hilary gazed at it for a second; it looked like a prisoner in cage. She turned her eyes away and picked up one of the four golden scarifies; a golden spider bouncing on the silken web it had crafted inside the globe.

"I offer this golden sacrifice," she said, putting the glass globe a few inches away from the butterfly. Following her, others did the same, putting a golden snake, a rare swallow, and a moth in front of them inside the circle.

The snake coiled in its glassy cage, staring at the swallow. It was a meal for it, but no matter how hard it tried, it could not break free from the glass. The moth constantly flew from one corner to another, bouncing off the walls but still defiantly fluttering.

Hilary clenched her fist…now was the hard part. She pulled a sharp knife from inside the bag lying next to her, and gave a deep cut in her thumb. A sharp hiss escaped her lips, and quickly a thin spurt of blood escaped out of the wound. She leant down, watching the other girls as they copied her.

She pressed her thumb on the floor, looking at the wound eject more blood out. Swiftly she drew a symbol around the sacrifice with it, and drew out a line from it, stopping just a few inches away from the metallic apparatus. "With this, I connect myself with you," she said, pulling herself back to sit upright again.

Hilary lit a matchstick again, and motioned it towards the bowl that made the bottom of metallic apparatus. It was filled with dried grass. She touched it, and watched as the fire quickly spread, giving out puffs of blackish smoke up in the air.

"A tuft of raven's plumes," Hilary said, throwing the tuft in fire. The feathers curled up, burnt beyond recognition.

Next they added the black rose water from the vial, then pure lavender oil. The grass fizzled, exuding a pleasant aroma with just a hit of musky odour. Step by step, they added them all, chanting incantations. When they were done with the last ingredient, their hair, it was Hilary's turn.

"I join the lines with crushed black ammonite," she said aloud, opening her fist a little to let the black powder escape, drawing the final ghostly symbol to make the seal. The butterfly strangely grew restless.

"I offer this virgin blood, to invoke thee," Hilary let out a whispery sound, pouring her virgin blood in the bowl. Quickly, they held each others hands, and began chanting… When they finished it the fourth time, something happened that none of them expected.

A large cloud of smoke blew up into the air from the bowl. Slowly it took a wispy form. Four arms jutted out, and latched onto the sacrifices. Strange web-like black goo stuck itself on them, penetrating the glass.

Mariah screamed, pulling her hand out of Hilary's hold. "Mariah…no, you must not break the circle," Hilary shouted, falling back…in the struggle to hold Mariah's hand, she too had fallen out of it.

She darted her eyes around for others. Salima and Jessica were huddled against the wall. Their faces were covered with sweat, and a film of fear. She didn't know what was going on…there was no way this was actually happening.

One by one the glass globes shattered. Hilary instinctively held up her arm to save her eyes and face. A few shards pierced into her skin. It hurt like hell. The skin there began to burn. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes stretching out behind her sweat drenched bangs. The goo…it was swallowing them whole. The snake thrashed about before it disappeared inside too.

Suddenly, the lump off mass in air lunged at her, stabbing her arm. A scream tore itself from her throat, as she fell further back. It stuck itself on her arm like a leech. But before she could take it off… it let her go.

It retreated back into the large symbol, flowing through the ash like a black snake, until it began to shine red. The light pierced through the room's darkness extinguishing the candles. It looked as if the whole room was submerged in a garden of roses. Then…it stopped. Just like that.

The goo slowly seeped into the moonwort butterfly's globe. It madly fluttered its wings that took on a glowing red colour. It shone…just like her ruby in the glass. Silence cast its cover over the room. It was over. The summoning was over.

The sat there, clasped by fear for minutes, but nothing appeared to take their life. It was quiet, strangely quiet. Only the hiss of outside wind and their wheezing breaths broke the stillness. Whatever was about to happen, Mariah stopped it…at least that is what Hilary thought.

When time went on, and nothing happened, they all quietly cleaned up the mess, and rearranged the room. As enthusiastically as the summoning had begun, it ended on a fearful note. The girls left together after tending to her shallow wound, leaving her alone in the house with the maid, who was off snoring in her own room.

Hilary picked up the butterfly globe. It had changed so much. It looked so beautiful with its striking wings shimmering like ruby and blood. She had the urge to shatter it, but the thought of it dying… it would be a murder most fowl.

She placed the butterfly on her side table and slipped under the bed sheets. It was already late. She cast one last glance at her room's locked door and fell asleep. She didn't know how long she had dozed off, when her body began to grow warm.

A strange heat rose up, pooling in the pit of her stomach, before it spread through her body. Her nipples rose under her shirt, standing erect. Sweat gathered under her breasts, slid down her slippery skin.

She moved her legs a little, sensing a rise of strange tingle between her legs. A whisper wafted to her, dancing on her lips, and stealing itself over her body. It felt pleasurable, so pleasurable that a soft sigh escaped her lips.

Her eyes fluttered open, focusing on a hazy figure standing not far from her bed. Trapped in a dream like allure, she tried to focus again. What greeted her…was something beautiful.

A very handsome Youngman stood aloof, looking at her with crimson eyes. His lips moved a little, and there it was again, the sensational twinge of rise in desire. Was this all a dream?

**End Note:** As you can see, Jessica is an OC. Happy reading, and reviewing.


	3. The Incubus Kai

**Chapter Two**: The Incubus Kai

Hilary tried hard to focus, but beads of sweat leaking in her eyes cast a thick curtain of haze. The figure standing before her swayed madly, as if she was swimming somewhere under the undulating dark waves. Her body was getting warmer and warmer. She did not know why, but her sensitive areas were firing up under the assault of something pressing down on her.

_What's going on?_ Hilary asked herself, as she tried to fumble through her severely muddled thoughts.

The man whispered again, his breath snuck its way over to her legs, creeping up slowly. It fanned out on her navel, the hairs there stood on ends. The skin on her breasts began to shiver. Her nipples stretching out to their limits, looking like two large buds under her night shirt.

Hilary's cotton skirt hugging her thighs, was covered with wet. A snuff of strange musky female aroma rose up from her body. The air kissing her knees was chilly, feeling like a cold drape of morning air on a feverish body. It was an odd sensation, but, she liked it…

Her body craved it…more and more. The need in her body was rising, its blood boiling in a tantalizing vigour, hungry to consume till it was satisfied. Heat rising up under her skin like wild fire, was delicious and appetizing.

An uncanny unwanted sensation lifted the ghostly veil off her eyes. She could see him clearly now, a handsome young man lolling against the window. Moonlight touching his form had simply ensnared him.

His skin, paler than night's light gave off a pearly shone in her room, though still dimmer than his impeccable white hair that fell around his face like a large silken cascade. His red eyes fixed on Hilary's, pulled away the final thin film of dreamy mist from her riveted eyes.

Fear intermingled with carnal desire, but soon, it managed to snuff it out, coming over her face in full force. She finally realized the reality she woke into; where she was not alone.

Her frightened eyes travelled up and down the nameless man, still standing quietly with a ghostly smile dancing about his lips. He wore strange leather like pants over his tall, slim legs. As her gaze lingered up, she noticed a tattoo of something on the side of his navel. They were a few reddish feathers, still travelling back from the sides of his narrow waist. A large earring hung from his rosy nipple… dangling like an embellishment on his bare torso.

Hilary lifted her gaze further up, her fingers balling up the bed sheets underneath her. She mustered a bit of courage, but not before swiftly grabbing her fluffed out pillow as some sort of shield.

"Who…who are you?" she choked out, "how did you get in here?"

The man looked back at her with a curious face. He cocked his head to one side, and darted his gaze around the empty room. Rather lazily, he returned his eyes back to the girl, who looked bewitched and deathly scared. A lusty smile now graced his lips. He narrowed his eyes on her, and rasped, "My name is Kai, and you summoned me."

"Wha…" she trailed off shocked, thinking something before he interrupted again.

"You do know you summoned an incubus, correct? For your sexual needs?" he asked with a straight face, as if he was asking about the morning weather.

Dumbstruck and confounded, she continued to stare at him. What the hell had they done? Hilary passed her hand over her sweaty hair, occasionally peering through her bangs to look at that man with alabaster skin. He seemed genuinely sober now, his face expressionless, and his eyes emotionless sea of crimson. Who was he?

She curled her fingers into fists, not buying this ridiculous shenanigan her girlfriends managed to pull on her. "Nice try," she said rather throatily under her breath.

The man who called himself Kai, lazily lifted his right eyebrow. "Pardon?" he asked, still standing aimlessly where she first saw him.

Hilary snapped her head up, bending her heated gaze full on Kai, whose unblinking eyes let no cover of feeling hover over them. "You heard me. Who put you up to this?" she demanded, raising the pitch of her faltering voice. "Was it Mariah? Jessica? Who?"

Kai let out a frustrated sigh, flaring his nostrils just a little. "Not this …problem again," he whispered to himself, putting his hand over his face, showing those marvelous fine sharp nails of his that did not miss Hilary's bewildered gaze.

He pushed his shoulder off the window, and stepped out of shadow's cover. Impearled under the white light, he looked almost invisible, only his sharp red eyes shining on his face.

"Stay away from me," Hilary warned, scrabbling off the bed. She rifled through her drawer pulling out pepper spray to fend off the uninvited man. She held it up, and looked at the door out of the corner of her eyes.

Kai turned his eyes to look at the door where the last spark of fire was dying in the pot, and then back to this strange girl who had summoned him. "What are you doing?" he asked, amused by her actions.

"I am warning you," Hilary warned, stepping back, looking at Kai take slow steps towards her. "I will use it."

Her heart was pounding in her throat. The warnings seem to have no effect on him. She could scream, but who would hear her? This man would do away with her, and march out of the front door before someone would even notice her dead body.

Hilary squeezed her eyes shut, listening to the shallow thumps of his heavy boots on the wooden floor. She held out her trembling hand, and pressed down the top of pepper spray; her only weapon.

A thin squirt landed straight in Kai's eyes. He stopped, sensing his eyes burn a little. Hilary eyes flew open, her vision focusing instantly on Kai's burning red eyes, blinking madly. When he didn't back away, she aimed again. Kai shrunk his eyes and swiftly jumped up, landing on the roof on all fours.

Hilary craned her neck, watching with trembling eyes as he stuck himself to the roof like Spiderman…the first superhero that came to her mind. He hung his head down, sticking his lithe tongue out. His long hair fell down like a giant white curtain.

Hilary let out a startled choked scream, and squashed her back against the wall. "That was not very nice. My eyes still burn a little," he confessed in a mellow voice, suggestively licking tears off his lips.

Hilary wanted to break for the door, but her quaking legs felt as if they would give way. Her unmoving eyes watched all of him, as he pulled his head up, humming to himself. A large phoenix like tattoo gleamed on his back, unmarred even by those small black freckles on the side of his shoulder.

Kai knelt up on the wall, his head still hidden behind a giant wall of blackness that filled the space of her roof. He moved his shoulders a little, and lifted his hand to his face. Standing under him, Hilary's eyes could see the muscles moving under his skin. A thin trial of sweat shining on his back, travelled down his spine. It trickled on her face like cool beads of morning dew.

He moved his head back completely ignoring her, and suddenly let go of her roof. He straightened his body in air and landed gracefully on his feet… staring at a deep cut on his first finger. _He really isn't human,_ Hilary thought, riveted by the strange wall feat he pulled off just now.

Kai held up his wounded finger, and twisted his tongue around it. As he opened his mouth, Hilary noticed his canine teeth were pretty long. He moved his head from side to side, lapping up the leaking blood, and sucking his finger dry…somehow, a part of her found it arousing.

He pulled out the finger from his mouth with a smack, putting his hand up. The wound was gone. Hilary gulped down the air chocking her throat. He really wasn't human at all. Did they really summon a demon? Was he going to kill her? Her face broke out in cold sweat, and instinctively, she touched the wound on her arm.

Kai narrowed his crimson eyes, following the path of dead veins as they took on life's colour. _Bastard…he nearly killed me,_ he thought grudgingly, clenching and unclenching his left hand, now looking normal again. Satisfied, he looked from his hand to Hilary, who looked like she was standing with her last drop of consciousness.

With one step, the distance between them disappeared. Kai placed both his hands on the wall, and leaned his head towards her, forcing her to meet his mischievous eyes. He twisted his lips, letting a mocking expression flicker over his face. "Listen…child," he began, bending his head a little more, "I have lived out forty of your measly life-spans…so, I ask again, what are you doing?" The command in his voice fell heavily on her.

She shook her head a little, snapping out of this startling revelation. Her eyes not leaving his youthful face…was he really that old? Her gaze skittered over his face…finding not a single deep line. He looked extremely young, around twenty three to twenty five she imagined.

"You," she breathed out, still searching for a sign of age on his painfully handsome face, "you are…more than two thousand years old?"

Kai remained silent for a few moments. His lips were slightly parted, showing his canine teeth sticking out of his mouth a little. "What of it?" he finally answered heavily, closing his eyes with a bit of annoyance.

"No, nothing," she said quickly, taken back by such a curt answer. "I was just…"

"You were just, what?" he asked, bringing his face closer to her. "Perhaps you were expecting some thrilling anecdotes…little girl." The harshness in his voice was masked by his velvety voice, but it was still there; sharp and cutting. He was constantly reminding Hilary of her mortality.

"Not at all," she said halfheartedly, arousing no particular response from the much older man.

Kai raked his nails on the walls, inching closer. "What do you want then?" he asked, bringing his voice down to a mere delightful whisper.

She looked away, not staring into those boring, inviting eyes. But his scent was so alluring. The musky smell of his hair spread about his shoulders was intoxicating, and the heat rising from his young body was palpable and tangible to her senses.

Hilary pressed her hands on the wall, and returned her attention back to him again. "It was…just a summon. We…summoned you…" She couldn't bring herself to say the words, 'summoned for fun'.

"For fun?" He suddenly completed her unsaid words. "Typical, naïve little girl" he mocked, pressing his body against her, his bangs skimming her fair face. He pushed his knees between her legs as they began to instinctively close on their own.

"Naughty, misbehaving child," he whispered close to her parched lips, burying his face in her shoulder length brown hair.

A shallow moan slipped her parted lips when he pushed his body harshly against her. She had never felt it before, a twinge in her sex as it burned, yearning the hardness of the other man.

Hilary curled her fingers around his shoulders trying to push him back, but her arms were trembling. Her body was getting hot again…it wanted him to do something, anything to her.

Kai smiled against her ear, breathing out puffs of warm air. "You would summon a demon, just for fun?" he asked, giving a playful nip to her ear.

Hilary's breath was coming out in gasps now. He had yet to even touch her properly, and her body was already weak from this little tease. "Foolish…you are such a foolish child." He chuckled playfully, playing with her bangs.

"I…" she hissed, when he licked up her nape, leaving her wanting more.

But he didn't do anything…he slightly backed away, tearing that warmth from her body that wanted his so badly now. She looked at him, shaking and breathing hard. A sinister gleam shone deep within his eyes, but it suddenly disappeared, brining that lustful emotion back again.

The corner of his lips curled up into a leer as he touched his body with hers again, sensing that flare of need in her rise with great desperation now. "Maybe you did know what you were doing," he said with amusement, snaking his hand up her skirt.

Hilary didn't know what to say…she was just clasped by these new sensations…

**AN:** I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I didn't want to add sexual content so quickly, so I decided to stop here. I will add detail about Hilary's university and her subjects in coming chapters. Be patient please.


	4. A Lover

**Chapter Three:** A Lover's Loss

**AN:** This is a short transition chapter between the two arcs; the second arc will begin after this. I always write these chapters short. I decided to reveal Tala's past here. Read on.

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Blue eyes grew bigger, gaze fastened on two lovers, a hateful gaze that wanted to burn everything it touched. He wanted to look away, but couldn't. A chill breeze was rushing past him, throwing his red hair in his eyes. They just drew his gaze to them, like a magnet.

Several moths fluttered overhead, circling a well-made web of a spider, whose round globe-like stomach shone just like the moon in the sky. And yet, the moths ignored the moon they desperately sought, trying to cling themselves to death. Tala thought, his lover was the same.

He curled his fingers, puncturing his own palm with his nails. She was enjoying his touch, moaning, when he squeezed her breasts and then bent his head to take her pert nipple in his mouth. Her soft sighs pierced through the night like daggers, drowning the noises of the insects around them. Or maybe, all his senses were bent on her, on him, and this feat of betrayal.

Tala placed his hand on the tree, eyes still on them standing close to a tall tree beyond the ever-green cypresses. She was in the grasp of the white demon, as his clan called him. Her fingers interlaced in his pearly white hair, still looking long and silken from this far. Shamelessly she let his body press against hers in this love-making session.

The demon pulled her legs apart, hitching up her night gown, kissing her furiously on her lips. His tongue twisted with hers in passionate dance. Willingly, she let him inside her, not feeling a little sense of loss and honour. Tala didn't understand. She had wrung out that last drop of passion for her from his body.

She was not chaste when she met him. A forgettable and impossible union she called her past affair. Never in his wildest dreams could he have thought her to betray the holy teachings, and spoil her body beyond redemption by letting him inside of her over and over again. Each of his desperate thrusts filled her with his poison in this act of unholy ecstasy.

Tala scraped his hand on the rough tree…he had lost her to him that night, as she got washed away by carnal lust, softly whispering his name 'Kai' so desperately, pleadingly as if that last drop of chastity left in her needed to be imbued with this morbid sensuous act.

Had she not felt anything for him? Had he not made love to her, made her feel something for him? Didn't he say he loved her, and would lay down his life for her? It did not matter; he did not matter to her. She was selfish, an abomination now. How dare she let this, this thing, pleasure her, make her so vulnerable?

Tala grit his teeth, his nostrils flared in anger. His face blotched by spots of seething rage, that last flame of love going out like embers on the wick of a candle. The sting of her bold behaviour, choosing Kai over him began to flood his body like an insidious disease.

It spread rapidly, snaring and tangling his thoughts; until nothing mattered than to cleanse her body, drive that demon out of her. The only thing that could bring his soul solace was her death. He had to get her out of her own devil. He had to do it, he just had to. He had to save her from flames of eternal hell.

Tears swam in his cold eyes. They streaked his emotionless face, leaving thin long lines along his cheek bones. Tala was composed, unfeeling. He did not even notice them, still prickling his skin like tiny needles. He left them there, beyond the trees and paced out of jungle having already made up his mind about her.

# # # # #

Mantled in the room's darkness, she stared into his eyes as death clouded them swiftly. The veil of life tore itself from her fast as her own blood pooled on the floor. Tala pulled out his sword and she thudded to the ground. Her jet black hair fell all around her.

As her body began to cool on the floor, that last flicker of life left her staring dead eyes. She was dead, murdered at Tala's hands. He stood over her, his face clam as if he had just done his duty. Two puncture wounds glowed on her neck, turning slightly bluish now on her lifeless white skin.

Tala's shadow fell on her still form. He kept looking into her eyes still staring back into his soul. The demon had bit her, and sooner or later that blood he offered her would have turned her into something inhuman. It was better this way, he assured himself after the kill. He had saved her, even if she never cared for him.

Tala wiped her blood off his long sword that had consumed a life, and pushed it inside its sheath. He dropped next to her, and picked up a few drops of her blood, still warm on the floor. He brought his blood stained fingers to his lips and gave a small lick. It tasted rusty, and a little warm.

He had to kill Kai, but he was too weak. If he had the demon's power, perhaps he would subdue him, and bring him his due death for stealing everything from him. The clan's leader had allowed. He was going to be an immortal hero. How amazing and prodigious that thought was.

The blood was mild; it would take three full moons for the transformation to take effect. But he would not let the demon inside him - now coursing through his veins - take away his humanity. Tala pulled out a vial from his pocket and drew out its cork. He looked at it for a moment, before placing it on his lips and drinking all of it.

The white elixir would keep the demon in him locked forever. Their great hero Almas had done it to wipe out the white demons out in the west. If he had not been killed, Tala never would have taken his place. Almas lived for over a thousand years, protecting humans in this world. His clan was known far and wide, and he was dubbed 'an angel', a protector of humanity.

But Kai strangely survived. How could he have eluded Almas, the most powerful warrior of their clan? Tala could never understand. Perhaps fates had willed it so, and Alams had lived out his worth. Now it was his turn, to put an end to this long strife.

Tala stood over a mound of grave. A cross shaped stone reading 'Almira' was sticking out of the ground. She was six feet under. How happy they could have been? She would have bore his children; they would have grown old together. But she ruined it, she ruined everything.

Anger flared inside his heart. She had left him alone, leaving a wound of great unfaithfulness in his heart. He had yet to forgive her, perhaps he never would. He had to kill Kai, he had to pay for his sins.

A thin line of morning light erupted out of the horizon. Tala looked up, enamored by the resolve it brought for him. He turned his back on the grave and walked out of the graveyard, plotting to fulfill his revenge where Kai had gone.

**AN:** I will write more about Tala's world and his clan in future chapters.


	5. Tainted

**Chapter Four:** Tainted

**AN:** I hope everyone can see the warning below. This chapter is mostly about the warning, but, I had to keep it as subtle as possible for the required ratings of this site; that and I am put off by overly explicit content. Please, understand that this is a mature story, and sex and death themes play a major part here, because of the Incubus. If you thought otherwise, then this story is not for you.

**Rating Warning:** This chapter contains mature sexual content. Tread lightly. For those not interested, they can read the rest of the chapter after the second breaking line (I make breaking lines with this #).

**# # # # # #**

Hilary didn't know when she nodded in a deliberate yes, but it could have been sometime between the wild tongue-twisting kisses she shared with this creature standing helplessly against the wall.

Now Hilary's back had found her comfy mattress. All of her open pores gave forth sweat and the aroma of sex from her ready body. She sucked in air sharply, feeling the heat roil under her skin. Her breasts, squashed under Kai's chest were sweaty and slippery.

Kai barely made any odd sounds, but she could not control them…these low guttural noises from her lips. Her skin shivered under his, and the hardness of his sex under the raw leather made her want him ever so more.

She parted her lips, sighing, feeling his serpentine tongue slip in her mouth, coiling and twisting in a grand sword dance. He was a great kisser. It was amazing how his sharp tongue never made any mess outside her mouth. How cleverly and quickly he passed it over her lips, and almost magically moved it back in.

Hilary's curled lashes trembled over her cheeks, and as she slightly forced them up, she realized she lay naked underneath Kai nestled weightlessly between her parted legs. A warm feeling of shame rose up. She had never taken off her clothes in front of anyone, except for her childhood days when her mother changed those soiled diapers. She had intended for it to stay that way.

The shame however quickly disappeared, getting shoved underneath her rising lust when Kai sucked hard at her neck, nibbling and nipping at her nape playfully. Her sex clenched painfully as he shifted his hips a little to move lower.

It was strange how repulsive Hilary found Tyson's silly groping when they got alone in the class or when he tried to intensely come on to her. Now, she had no excuses. She liked it. She liked whatever Kai had to offer.

Hilary loved it, sensing the undulating tingly feeling as he touched her breasts. The hot shiver scurrying up her spine when he pressed his face between her small mounds. The spurt of sexual thrill when he clamped her taut nipple between his sharp teeth. She felt wonderful all over.

Kai traced his glib looking finger tip around her navel, pushing it slightly inside to get a small needy rise out of her. A delightful current ran straight to her sex again. All of this was so new to her. Her body was responding so obediently, like a student taking in the lessons of his master; Kai was the master of her body.

He suddenly moved up, pressing his lips upon hers rather hungrily. She responded eagerly, wanting to relish his wonderful kisses again. Kai's long hair fell over her face like a thick white drape, feeling a bit prickly on her wet face. They slid down smoothly, as if made of finest silken threads as he titled her head a little, and held her jaw with his dexterous hand to plunge deeper into her mouth.

Hilary's throat rumbled with deep moans, and warm blood rushed through her face when he sucked on her tongue. She opened her eyes fully, peering through the lusty haze glazing her vision. Kai's closed whitish lashes brushed against her nose. He looked serene, calm, even when she was practically losing it. Only a slight flicker of lust disturbed his features.

Kai broke the kiss; burying his face in her neck he sucked at her throat. Hilary's eyes widened as he moved his hand over her face, skimming her lips with his nails. They had grown considerably long; long enough to tear open her flesh if he willed it. Her heart began to thud against her ribs at the sight of his unnatural fingers. How the pearly moon light bounced off the diamond edges of his nails, shimmering like lodged daggers in the flesh of his fingers.

But he was so very careful, just barely touching the apple of her flushed cheeks with those pointed tips, the swell of her mounds. Kai splayed his fingers over her breast and squeezed lightly, his nails not wounding the sensitive flesh there. As he snaked them lower, they grew bigger, sharper and longer, and by the time his nails got tangled in the dark curls of her nether hair, they were bigger than his entire fingers.

Goose-bumps rose on her skin like little blister bumps, and despite the tide of desire spreading over her body, she felt a jolt of fear. Her gaze followed his fingers, and she held it there, ready to push him off even if she felt a small twinge of hurt.

Kai slowly slipped his nails between those lips; a loud moan rose from Hilary's throat, and her jaws opened as if moving on their own. His nails chilly and hard against the flesh there, suddenly burned. And then she felt it; womanly fluids spilling out of her sex.

Kai's fingers teased and taunted her, rising and falling on her heated core. He moved them lower, pushing the sharp tip against the delicate web of her virginity, before he slipped his entire finger in. Hilary felt a tiny stab of pain, and a warm sensation when a few drops of blood oozed out of her passage.

Kai's nail was hard inside her, so deliciously hard. He pushed his second finger in, and her sex clamped down on it. Her moistness made his fingers slip in and out of her so easily. When he pulled them out, her sex clenched with a strange pain.

He pulled himself off her, removing the warm weight of his body, leaving her naked skin open to the lashes of night wind blowing in through her window. His hair trailing behind his bowed head, were like a chaste covering on her body. He sat quietly for a moment, and moved his hair back.

When the curtain of Kai's hair lifted up from his face, she caught the look in his eyes. They glowed now with reddish fire, enflamed by the passion of sex. He stuck out his tongue and licked the stickiness of her sex off his fingers. Hilary tried to turn her eyes away in shame, but the heat of her nether parts now desired his soft lips and his moist tongue.

She could picture him now in a hazy dream, relishing the wetness of her womanhood with his eager lips, and lithe tongue. So she did not stop him when he lowered his face between her legs, closing his moist hot lips on her core, and sucking on the tiny bud there so passionately. She closed her thighs around his head, not moving her eyes bent on him, and those long fingers curled around her thighs. His wild hair, spread like white plumes of pigeons on her flat stomach.

Kai pushed his soft tongue inside of her, and Hilary's body felt the first powerful jolt of coming organism. His lips moved and sucked on the bundle of veins wrapped under her swollen clit and his tongue, so soft and warm, explored her intimately.

She always thought boys considered it a chore, and the idea of pleasuring someone with her mouth was sickening. But what was life without its hypocrisies? This private thought made her smile, and she would not mind if Kai decided to make it a daily habit of dining a few inches under her belly.

But just as her desires were to find fruition with one mighty crash, Kai tore his lips away from her sex. And just like before, he sat up again, licking white streaks of her desire off his rosy lips. She didn't say anything to him. Her lips were still parted from the heavy fill of lust, and her breath came out of her in quick gasps. She wanted him to do it again; relish her with his sweet mouth, take those lips between his lips again. The mere thought was driving her mad.

Hilary closed her eyes, and wiped her sweat drenched face with her palm. She felt the bed sink a little, and found Kai on top staring down at her with mischievous, lust-filled eyes. He leaned down his head, closing his jaws on her throat, and drove his hardness into her in one smooth slide.

Her narrow slit stretched open to adjust his taut length. A slight stab of pain shot through her body, but it was not enough to overwhelm her lust. Hilary's breath escaped her so quickly that she had to suck in mouthfuls to fill her empty lungs.

Kai did not give her any time to adjust, and began invading her sex again and again with soft teasing thrusts. Her inner walls quickly relaxed and tensed around his length, as he kept increasing his pace after a few moments. She didn't even realize when she became so loud, responding his rough plunges eagerly.

She writhed and squirmed under him, tossing her head in pain of an orgasm held at bay by him. Whenever she felt the convulsions of orgasm breaking her resolve, he would slow down to let the heat subside, and then would pick up pace again, slamming inside her to make her breathless and enamoured.

"Stop," she sighed out, pushing his shoulders back.

"What, no more?" he teased, pinching her hard nipples.

Hilary grunted in reply. She really wanted him to stop; even the chilly metal on his zipper was beginning to bite into her thighs every time he pushed forward. And so he did, so suddenly that she felt a great weight spill down her body in one fast motion. Her vision blurred, and a grand sensation of pleasure trickled all over her body. Her lips parted to taste what it felt like, and her hands and toes curled.

She arched her back into him, and then fell down snuffling, trying to grasp a bit of that lingering sensation that was beyond anything human. Seconds, minutes… she didn't know how long she lay there, panting and disorientated. Slowly, breath by breath the force of delightful shivers crawled to a mere tingle, still tantalizing her. Her sex … was sore, and it was impossible to tell whether she would be able to handle another hour long marathon thrusting like this again for a few days to come.

Hilary's body felt really light; Kai had removed his heaviness, and stood next to the window, peering through the foggy glass. She tried to lift her body, but found it exhausted and unwilling to cooperate. All she needed now was sleep. And to her surprise, it was closing on her fast. She groped around the bed and sluggishly pulled the bed sheets over her. Within seconds, Kai's figure was left behind the curtain of haze.

**# # # # # #**

The morning came as usual. Sun tore open the darkness in the sky, and a stark yellow light spilled forth over the corrugated ceiling. It sloped down the window panes and struck Hilary's face. She felt as if something warm had jolted her. Her eyes, still heavy from sleep, trembled and her brown orbs shrunk against the blinding light.

The first thing that greeted her was Kai, leaning crossed-legged against the wall, his eyes focused on something outside her window. A heat rose up, and her sex was moist again. She thought it to be a natural reaction of her newly deflowered body.

Kai looked different from last night. His skin was no longer pearly, but was blushing like a tint of rosy colour in milk. He was still quite pale, but in the morning light, his hair looked grey on his natural, human skin. His eyes were calm, and his grayish orbs shone among the white pools.

His hair was still long, and magnificent, flowing around his hips. Half of them lay tangled on his shoulders, slightly disturbed by the puffs of wind. He looked…so beautiful. She couldn't quite say which look of his she found most enthralling; the pearly white in the quiet dark, or the pale rosiness in the first blast of light? How she wanted him now to play with her again… if her body wasn't so weak, she would have invited him among the sheets to warm her bed and body again.

Hilary pulled herself to a sitting position, evoking no response from the demon, still silently watching something that probably fascinated him. She turned her eyes to the small ugly looking side-table clock. It struck six in the morning. And today was Quiz day. She took a handful of hair in her hand and jerked at it. She returned her attention to the demon again, and breathed in some air to talk.

"I have to go to the University," she paused, looking at Kai as he slowly turned his head to look at her, "and…and I can't leave you here."

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**AN: **Yes folks, the chapter ends here. I thank every single reviewer who bothered to leave a review. I always reply to my reviewers, but my PM Service was acting up because of my super slow net, so I couldn't. Now that it is working again, I plan on continuing the tradition. So from now on, every reviewer will get personal thanks from me. How cool is that?

I hope no one found the chapter too boring. Leave a line, and do tell which part of any chapter appeals to you etc etc.


	6. Chameleon Skin

**Chapter Five**: Chameleon Skin

"What," Hilary spat back, gritting her teeth in rage, as if the demon had just insulted her in the most foul way imaginable.

Her voice apparently fell on deaf ears, and the youthful demon, the secret spawn of something beautiful, paid her little heed. His head and eyes refusing to stir, were focused on something very very important and she was the apparent redundant figure in the room.

"You can't do that," She screamed at the top of her lungs, smacking her hand down on the bed in rage. She felt irritable today. Maybe her PMS was kicking in, but it didn't matter.

Kai rubbed his temple, and sighed. "There is no need to send a voice my way, that is probably enough to tear through any known creature's ear-drum. I can hear you just fine," he said with a casual air, still not turning his head at her.

"Well…" Hilary said, pausing to wrack her brains for something nasty to say, but managed the same, "you can't do that," again.

"Can't I?" Kai said in response, lazily moving his head to one side. "I told you, that's not my problem."

"What do you mean it's not your problem?" Hilary countered, sitting up straight, and hiding her nudeness behind the bed sheets stained with her release only.

With a deep intake of breath, he finally shifted from his position and turned just a little to look at Hilary and her ruffled bed hair. "How you manage your daily life is none of my concern. I was summoned here to sexually please you, and that's the only thing I will do. I am not at your command to do whatever silly things that may or may not accidently form in your silly little head. Are we clear, little girl?" he finished, standing a foot away from her bed.

Hilary stared back into his boring eyes that shifted colours in mere seconds. For a moment they were grey, then red against the light. The tips of his hair looked a little yellow under the sun's light, and as they fell on his arms they took on their colour mixing that ray of light in his skin.

Kai transformed again. The rosy blush of his skin slowly diluted, and then shimmered in a beautiful pale yellowness dancing through his veins. Half of his face still under the grasp of shade, succumbed to the invading golden paleness until he stood completely ravished by the sun's light.

The blood pumped in his lips, and they turned redder, as if about to bleed from a small cut she couldn't see. His hard nails shone too, in rhythm with the colour in his body that had just been kissed by sun's fire.

"You…change colours," Hilary said in awe, stupefied by the complete transformation. Her eyes bent on his hair, still grey and only mildly taken over by sun at tips.

A smile stretched Kai's lips before he looked up at the sun and let out a musical laugh. He looked amused. He lowered his head, showing the golden haze trapped in his eyes and ran his tongue over those blood-red lips that she wanted with such a fiery desire.

Kai's gaze, intense, denuded her in such a way that she didn't understand. He slightly shifted his lower jaw and bit into his lip. A single line of fresh blood trickled down his chin. Her eyes saw it again…his veins quickly trying to suck in the shade. He picked a few drops up, and smeared them on his hair.

It looked magical. A flame spread through his hair. He closed his eyes, as if under the spell of sexual ecstasy. In a few seconds red streaked over the grey, and they turned completely red, beautiful, long, and magnificent like a blood curtain on his skin that had made love to sun not long ago.

The sun glaring down through the window sprinkled gold in his hair, and they slowly reverted back to how they looked before; beautifully grey with just a few threads of pure gold. The smile had not left his enticing, kissable lips, slightly parted as some sort of invitation as Hilary thought it.

Hillary's gaze gilded over his entire form, bewitched and entranced. "Amazing," she gave forth a shallow gasp, deeply impressed with this enthralling magical show. Little by little, she lifted her eyes, drinking in the gold sheen and those lovely sweat drops clinging to his pale-yellow skin.

Now she had three of him. How many more times will he change? Show her this riveting, and alluring change of his? Will he change shade, when his long hair will hug his torso covered with the trickles of rain? Will his hair give off a pale bluish shine… his eyes, what will happen to them?

A warm sweet sensation lifted inside her. She wanted to see it, see him transform over and over again, changing colours like a chameleon right before her eyes. "How can you do that?" she asked, gulping down the lump in her throat.

Kai's smile widened, and his cheeks puffed out a little. His long canine teeth poked out from beneath his lips. "I am capable of shape shifting. This is just colour," he said with a slight wave of his hand.

"You can?" Hilary erupted in surprise, startling the demon a bit. "Do it, change into someone. Wait, how about me?" She bounced on the bed excitedly.

Kai's smile disappeared, replaced by a strange confused expression as if he was talking to a child. "I cannot transform into females," he said in a serious voice, as if it was completely obvious.

Hilary puckered up her lips, and looked around for a moment before a new possibility jolted her to jump another time. "Transform into something else then," she reeled out, huffing with excitement.

Kai's jaw went tense, and he folded his arms looking downright insulted. "I cannot change into buffalos and pigs just because you will it," he said in a measured voice, knitting his brow.

"I never said that," Hilary muttered, rolling her eyes and harshly putting a stop to her Kai rabbit fantasy. She could have carried him to university in her bag. "Fine then, transform into something, you CAN transform into. Fair?"

Kai remained silent for a moment, looking at the smile stretching Hilary's lips from ear to ear. "I cannot," he sighed out, closing his eyes, "or at least not for some time."

"What…why?" Hilary asked in a raised voice like she was protesting.

"It's not as simple as it sounds," Kai said, remaining calm. He opened his eyes to find childish disappointed plastered on Hilary's face. "Let's say, I ran into a bit of an accident on my way here."

Hilary found herself looking at a red stain spread through his eyes. And when she blinked the second time, they were blood red. Her lips formed some words but nothing came out. Every time he did that it mesmerized her.

"I will recover soon. And then I will transform myself into a man you want me to," Kai whispered, leaning his head to one side. "Are you enamored by someone in particular?"

"Huh?" Hilary managed to blurt out, staring at Kai and the invisible force of his sweet sexuality.

"I think it is a simple question; are you sexually attracted to someone you want me to transform into?" Kai asked in a business like tone, squeezing his arms a little.

"Why would I want that?" Hilary gave a quick reply, watching a curious expression ghost over his face. He looked somewhere between annoyed and confused.

"Because women tend to take advantage of my shape shifting abilities. I remember someone asked me to transform into a younger version of Abraham Lincoln once. It was odd," he paused, pinching his lips, "the poor man had teeth troubles. It was quite painful for me to replicate that."

"Are you serious?" Hilary said nearly at the top of her lungs, making the Demon jump just a little. "Why would anyone want you to transform?"

"Why do you always scream?" he asked, lowering his voice to make a point. "I told you before, I can hear you just fine. And that's not my concern why she asked me to do it. I suppose it sexually excited her."

Hilary's lips quivered, and she burst out in peals of laughter watching Kai take a step back as if she had gone mentally deranged. His eyes were stretched out a little, and his lips pressed into a thin line as he watched her laughter slow down to a few coughs.

"She found him more sexually exciting than you?" Hilary asked, letting a cackle or two slip between the words.

"I don't understand what you mean," Kai said shrugging his shoulders. He looked pretty bored now with Hilary's constant stream of questions.

"Look, I can't see how any woman in her right mind would want anyone who looks anything like you, change into any other man. I only wanted to see you transform, that is all," Hilary said, pulling her legs close to her chest.

Silence fell between them again. Kai analyzed her for a few seconds and breathed in the fresh morning air. "So you are not sexually attracted to anyone?" he asked, puffing at the bangs flopping over the side of his face.

"I am…" Hilary paused, feeling her cheeks burn, "sexually attracted … to you."

Kai lifted his right eye-brow and twisted his lips into a leer. "You will be surprised how many times I have heard that before," he confessed, suggestively licking his lips. His gaze intense with an odd hunger, excited her blood.

Hilary felt the burden of his gaze on her, and turned her eyes away. Not wanting to feel the heat, the allure he exuded like a fresh fragrance of a thousand roses. She returned her gaze to him, meeting his red eyes that were the epitome of passion and sex.

A ghostly smile still lingered on his lips, and she relished it. Her eyes craved him, her body desired him, her lips thirsted for his… only a fool would deny the pleasures he had to offer. "I think…I think you are beautiful," she whispered, feeling her eyes trapped in some form of trance she did not want to break.

He gave forth a little laugh that rippled in the room. "That is very sweet of you. But what about your University? Weren't you needed there?" he said cheekily, baring his teeth.

His words fell on her head like a thousand bricks, breaking the building desire. "Look, I can't leave you here. You have to come with me … It will," she broke off, thinking what to say to convince him to come, "…sexually excite me."

"What?" Kai asked, unfolding his arms. That same confused expression shrouded his perfectly chiseled features.

"Yes, you have no idea. Just, don't change colours, please," she begged, clasping her fingers together.

Kai held his gaze, deliberating over her odd request. With a sigh, he shifted a little and grabbed all of his hair. His nails jutted out of his fingers, and he cut through them in one swift motion. They fell at his feet like light features. Now they hung just above his shoulders, silky and smooth.

Kai wrapped his arms around himself, and began shifting the colour of his skin. A blush rose up to the surface, spreading like blossoming roses until it enveloped him completely. He opened his mouth, moving his jaws. His long canine teeth pushed back in.

He stood hunched for a few moments, and then gulped in lungful of air. When he stood up, he looked almost human. "Will this do?" he said, pulling an irritated look.

Hilary flashed a toothy grin, and bobbed her head. She felt strangely excited.

**# # # # # # #**

Yes, I didn't take it to the University just yet, as I had to reveal an important aspect about Kai. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.


	7. Pain and Reluctance

**Chapter Six:** Pain and Reluctance

Kai was stuck to the window again, leaning his head out to look at the thick forest dotting the landscape just beyond the main road. His grey hair tumbled down over his shoulders in messy tangles. But she didn't care; he still looked beautiful, though far less husky. The transformation seemed to have taken quite a bit of that demonic, raw sexual appeal from him.

Hilary stood behind him, dressed in casual clothes and trickling wet hair. She had to take a shower, but it was the most boring shower she had ever taken. Despite her meager and rather pathetic attempts at invitations, Kai blatantly refused to step under the jutting water after transformation.

He explained how she complained and asked too many pointless questions, and when she insisted anyways, he growled, flashed her a death glare and went out of bathroom grumbling about her 'brain being as small as her life'. He was just too tight-assed and grouchy in her very honest and humble opinion.

Letting her gaze linger on him for just a moment, she diverted her attention and packed her things quickly, cramming her bag with all the things she could find. She had pulled out a nice black shirt for him to go with his leather pants, but so far, he was just basking in the morning sun…bare-chested with a scowl on his face.

"Kai," she began timidly, zipping up her fat bag, "you need to wear this." She picked up the T-Shirt and buckled the bag's strap across her chest.

Kai's head moved almost mechanically, and his heavy grayish-blue eyes settled on her. He looked from the shirt to her face, wearing an annoyed expression. He stubbornly remained silent for quite sometime, before choking out "alright" half-heartedly. He took the shirt from her hand, and looked at it before slipping it on.

It fitted him perfectly, complementing his muscles and the paleness of his skin. He scraped his hair back, and grudgingly tied them in a ribbon Hilary gave him. Then came the rough black coat, which was of course stepping way out of line. "Are we playing dress ups for a ball?" he said, chocking back anger. His face contorted with irritation, but he still maintained a bit of showy civility.

"I just want you to fit in," she said meeting his angry gaze, "there is no need to get so angry."

"Tch…Fine," he said curtly, and slipped his arms into the coat, quickly stepping away from her as if she was something contagious. His ears pricked up and he looked at the door, picking up the sounds of soft thumps on the wooden floor. "Someone is coming."

"Miss Hilary," a voice came from beyond the door, startling Hilary. She snapped her head at the door, breaking out in cold sweat. "You should get up, or you will be late for university." She rapped on the door, turning the handle several times.

"You should open the door," Kai said in a clam voice, climbing out of the window. "I'll meet you on the road." He leaped out, landing smoothly on his feet. The fall had no effect on his body.

She looked down at the marbled pavement, and then the edges of the wooden work on the second floor's terrace. Her room was on the third floor. The height did not even bend his legs. Her eyes filled with fascination followed him as he sauntered for the road, leaving dusty marks on the marble stones in the ground.

Hilary shushed the nosy maid about her general feelings of dread about this house. Apparently, she was convinced about Hilary's room being haunted by a mewling ghost, and only last night she heard it growling. She told her how she back-stepped and ran down stairs screaming. Somehow, Hilary's ears had missed all that and the banging noises when the poor maid fell down the stairs.

She stuffed her mouth with roasted potatoes, promised the maid a hefty raise when she refused to stay in the house and marched out the front door. The weather was beautiful. As she lifted her eyes, she could see clear skies all the way, not a single cloud in sight. The cool morning breeze chilled her warm cheeks burning slightly under the yellow sun.

She strode over the tiny stream cutting through her front yard, and paced for the road keeping her eyes on Kai standing under the Cherry Blossom tree. She paused in her steps next to him, admiring the relaxed features and that wisp of a smile ghosting on his lips. A shower of pink blossoms lay quivering on his black coat.

He picked one between his fingers and blew at it. The warm sun brought out the warmth in him. He looked relaxed, happy even, standing against the large bark of the full blossomed tree. The paleness of his skin was blotched by the leaves throwing grey shadows on him.

Kai's eyes shone with misty sharpness under the grey lashes. His stray bangs whipped across his rosy cheeks. The sun was making him blush. She smiled up at him, desiring him; wanting him to clasp his arms around her waist and kiss her… kiss her deeply. Let his tongue delve into her mouth, and his fingers ghost over her body.

Hilary stood silent close to him, not breaking the gaze that bound her to him and the passion flowing out of his body. Even in transformation, his eyes made her weak. She clasped his hand and started walking. The demon in disguise took no offense and matched her pace, looking around with great interest.

It was strange how boyish and charming he seemed, blushing and screwing his head around to eye the pink-streaked trees, the roads strewn with fallen leaves, and the houses lining the side of the road. They piqued his interest, and he did not care, showing his white teeth in happiness. It was all smiles for the very old demon clad in a befooling, yet richly beautiful young skin.

He was fascinated with the traffic, the glowing traffic signals, and even wondered aloud how much everything had changed since the last time he was in Japan, three decades ago. At that Hilary's lifted mood took a nasty drop. She knew he made her feel old, and how was it even fair? She was not even born when he came here to serve someone.

_How cruel,_ she thought, directing her glare on his happy face that was now making her cringe. It simply bounced off Kai, not sagging his smile even a bit. They walked for several minutes before coming under the slanting shadows of trees standing around the large lawn.

Kai pulled his lips back, baring his teeth, white enough to blind anyone in the dark. He swept his gaze around, smiling like a school kid on his first day in kindergarten. A puff of cool wind blew in his face, leaving tears in his eyes but not snatching away the hearty expression.

Several students ran past them, but Hilary's eyes only found Kai. A web of red veins ran under his alive skin. His head was turned away from her as he looked at the marvelous building beyond the cloistered pavements. A vein throbbed in his neck … he looked alive, human, yet unbelievably beautiful.

Feeling the heaviness of her gaze on him, he lowered his eyes, settling his light gaze on her. And as if he had read her mind, he lifted her chin with his fingers and pressed his lips against hers. His warm, soft lips moved slightly before he backed away, looking at the blush spread like a coating of red roses on her soft cheeks.

"If you wanted something, you shouldn't have brought me here," he said softly, playing with her rich-brown curls. His expression changed slightly, brining a hint of predatory sensuousness in his eyes.

Hilary didn't know what to say; the light kiss had left her in such a daze. Her eyes moved on his face, drinking in the sharpness of his features, and the soft rosiness of his lips. Dreamily, she parted her lips to say something when a bell chimed at a distance. She tightened her hold on his sweaty hand, and broke into a run. Kai stumbled forward but gained his balance soon, jogging beside her.

He didn't say anything when she led him through a maze of halls and stopped next to the principal's office, urging him to wait for her. She took a bit of time inside, making up a decent story of an acquaintance from Russia, who was here to get a general know how of this university's study system.

The Principal agreed, and to his dismay, he had to carry a 'foreign student' tag around his neck the whole time. He protested how he felt like a branded animal this way. Hilary couldn't understand his over-dramatic reaction.

Then there were his complains about her behavior being down-right odd. If sex in this education institution was a kink of hers, then they could have come here at night, and on wings no less. Hilary made a mental note on her check-list of 'to do things with Kai'…and this was definitely her top priority now.

They made it just in time. Hilary dragged Kai to the far end corner of the class, sitting beside him on the bench behind a really tall guy from biology class. Kai stretched his neck a bit to look over him when the class teacher walked into the room.

"I am taking English as an optional subject," she whispered keeping her head down. "Just stay quiet, and leave the rest to me." She smiled, wearing a proud smile met with a mild mocking expression forming on Kai's face.

He tucked some white bangs behind his ear, and leaned back into the chair. "I am fluent in two hundred languages," he said in a casual voice, drumming his fingers on the desk. "You don't need to worry about me."

"Whatever," Hilary snapped at him, taking out a pen for the quiz. Kai merely shrugged at that and stared at the class with half-lidded eyes.

It took a while for the old teacher to notice Kai's presence. He was quite impressed with Kai's firm command over English, and even blushed at the gentlemanly accent that seemed to roll of his tongue with such elegance… he was so impressed in fact that he gave Hilary the cold shoulder and dragged Kai off to his table, leaving her behind to solve the quiz on her own… the nerve of the hunch-backed bastard; she could have asked Kai something.

"Ah, to be young and handsome," he drawled at Kai's youthful elegant looks, and even laughed at his experience with the ladies. Hilary's eyes shrunk behind her brown bangs. She hated how Kai laughed with the man with not a care in the world. Not once did he look her way. He was supposed to please her…how dare he.

Minutes dragged on like hours, but that old-fool refused to send him back to her. She had completed the damn test and wanted to get the hell out of there before Salima, Jessica, or worse Maria noticed him. What would she do then? She slumped over in the chair and put her head between her hands, and finally what seemed like a toil worthy of eternity the bell sounded. It was over…

Kai smiled at the old teacher with thick, black-rimmed glasses and lazily walked for her. "Done with it already?" he asked coolly, smiling down at her stone-cold contorted face.

Hilary got to her feet and flung her bag over her shoulder. "So, did you finally make a best friend?" she asked sarcastically, giving a slight shake to her rich brown curls.

"You seem angry? Why?" he asked, putting his hand on the desk. "I was just being friendly to your teacher."

Hilary held her nose up and exhaled a loud humph before whipping around to walk out of the empty class. Kai shoved his hand in his coat's pocket, and dawdled behind her. When he finally caught up, he inhaled a bit of stale air around him and said, "if you are so angry, maybe I can please you somehow."

The silkiness of his voice made her stop her walk suddenly. She turned around to find him standing close. His mild heated expression betrayed nothing, not even the intensity that always seem to get stilled before it even touched his features.

"Hilary," a scream sounded from far end of the hall, followed by countless loud thumps. "There you are, and…oh…" the pink haired loud-mouth stood still, eying Kai with a little more fervour.

"Hi, what are you," she stopped eying Salima whispering something in Jessica's ears, and then Tyson came into vision, "all doing here?"

"We study here, you bimbo," Maria bellowed without much of any reason, inching close to Kai, who looked quite fascinated with her hair. "And, who's he?" she threw Hilary a toothy grin and winked.

"I am…" Kai began calmly, his eyes still glued on her strange hair.

"He is a friend," Hilary quickly cut him off, getting nervous and sweaty, "from Russia, remember?" She scratched her head and let out a nervous laugh.

"Funny, I really don't," Maria said, curling her arms around Kai's. Kai looked down at her and smiled. "But it's okay; let's learn a thing or two about each other." She didn't even give Hilary a second to protest and dragged him along with Salima and Jessica.

That was so like Maria…jumping on any good-looking guy she saw. She rolled up her sleeve and marched after her into the loud Cafeteria. An assortment of human sounds filled her ears. Some laughed, others giggled and shared the usual gossip. It was just another day here at lunch time.

There at the usual spot stood Kai still in Maria's death-hold. His coat was gone, and Maria was already running her hands up and down his pale arms, wearing her usual cutesy smile like she didn't know what she was doing.

A growl rumbled in Hilary's throat and she stomped across the hall. Her fists clenched, and her back-off-bitch face on, she was going to give her a piece of her mind. "Stop it Maria, this is sexual harassment," she hissed through clenched teeth, trying to pull Kai away from her.

"No it is not," Maria squeaked and craned her neck to look up at the much taller man. "This is not, right?"

Kai gave forth a soft, throaty chuckle which boiled Hilary's blood. He was thoroughly enjoying it. Maria flung herself down onto the bench and pulled Kai with her. He obliged without much of any resistance, still wearing that annoying pasted smile. With a deep sigh she seated herself next to Kai, averting Tyson's probing gaze.

"So," Tyson began from across the table, brining his gaze from Kai to Hilary, "friend of yours?"

Hilary nodded, pecking at the food Salima and Jessica had left for her. She looked over at the far end, not making an eye-contact with Tyson. "Funny, you never told anyone about him," he pressed on, taking a large bite out of the sandwich.

"I didn't think it was necessary," Hilary gave a quick reply, and busied herself with her food again.

Next to her Maria giggled when Kai complemented her hair. Hilary rolled her eyes, convinced that he was obviously lying. "Is that your natural hair colour?" Maria asked, twirling his white bangs between her fingers.

"Yes," he said in a deep smooth voice getting another excited squeal out of her. Across the table Ray smiled, Max looked oblivious and confused with his lower lip hanging down, and Tyson clenched his teeth… he obviously had not bought this friend crap.

After a long half an hour of listening to Maria's odd bed-room squeals at whatever Kai had to say, lunch time thankfully ended. Hilary maintained an indifferent attitude towards Tyson and made it out of the hall with Kai in one piece along with that precious black coat, which Maria didn't give up that easily.

She decided to skip the rest of the classes and made her way out of the front hall. When they stepped out, the sun was glaring down on them. She put her hand over her eyes and peered through her fingers. The sky was still clear, and cloudless. The heat was rising, making her and the demon sweaty.

She turned around to look at Kai, and her heart skipped a beat. His eyes were changing colours, and his left hand was clasped in the other. A look of pain chased after fear on his face, and he gritted his teeth, growling in his throat.

"Kai...what's wrong," she asked, and reached over to touch him.

He shrunk at her touch and bolted with an immense speed towards the high wall that no one saw him. He leapt over it and disappeared behind the forest. Hilary ran behind him, and made her way around the gate into the forest.

The forest was dense. The trees shushed around her, and the stones scrunched under her boots. Her skirt flowed over her thighs as she ran and ran darting her eyes around for Kai. "Kai," she called out, but no sound came.

Exhausted, she hunched next to a tree, and wiped the sweat out of her eyes. Her legs were aching, ready to give way. She was puffing, and completely out of breath. She leaned her shoulder against the tree and moved her gaze, when a trail of something red caught her eye…blood.

A new strength ran through her, and she broke into a run, following the drops until she came to a small clearing. Kai was kneeling on the ground, his left hand leathery and bleeding. He jerked his head up when she stepped over the dry leaves.

His lips were red, glistering with blood. He looked beaten up, yet so dangerous. She stopped dead in her tracks, not knowing what to say or do. "Kai," she spoke in a timid whisper, "what's…wrong?"

"I..." He stared at her, his brow knitted tightly. "I need blood. Now," he commanded, tearing at his left hand.

Hilary couldn't understand what he meant.

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**AN:** This chapter was important, so, I expect all readers paid attention. Next chapter will pick up exactly from this point, so that you know what you all have to look forward to.


	8. Empty Grave

**Chapter Seven:** Empty Grave

Hilary's eyes lingered slowly on the grass. A dribble of blood leaked from his mouth, coating his lips red. He gave his lips a lick, wiping the blood away only to have them forcefully daubed red again. His left hand was leathery and bleeding profusely, dangling lifelessly on a bundle of exposed veins.

Hilary cringed her neck, and took a step back as he shoved his knife-like nails into his hand cracking the bone in half. His face screwed up into a painful expression, and a large spray of blood exploded out of his blackened veins. He slumped back against the tree, his eyes looking out into the distance.

The colour in his face drained fast, losing its lively blush. His cheeks now hollow and his skin clinging to his sharp bones like a wet paint drying on the wall. He looked weak, fragile, and very ill. After a while he finally stirred, moving his eyes as if searching for someone. And then he settled them on her.

Black-rimmed and filled with infinite hunger, she felt her heart beat faster under his gaze. The skin around his mouth trembled a little, and he parted his lips, expanding his nostrils wide to suck air. "Give me…blood," he said again with great difficultly, wrapping his arm around himself.

She didn't understand what to say, what to do. What was he asking from her? A puzzling look enveloped her face that made him growl with irritation. "Are you deaf?" he asked, raising his sharp voice that startled Hilary. "I said… I need your blood." His words sounded like hammers in the emptiness of the forest.

His sound carried over the noise effortlessly, mingling with the hiss of wind, and the crackling of dead leaves. She didn't think he actually meant it. "K-Kai?" she stuttered, her throat chocking with fear. He couldn't be serious?

"What? You think I am fooling with you?" he said with a mocking tone, letting the same expression cover his face perfectly. He looked sinister and murderous. Slowly he gathered his quivering body to his feet, putting his long-nailed healthy hand against the roughness of the tree.

His lifeless, dead hand now hung from just one large black vein, swinging back and forth in the steady wind like a giant-clock's hand. His hand's bone broken in half was poking out from between the shriveled skin. Only a drop or two of blackish blood trickled on the grass covered ground. The hand was completely dried up.

"Hilary," Kai snarled, his jaws opening wide to adjust his growing canine teeth. "Come here…NOW." He thrust his hand forward, shaking his fingers a little.

Hilary's feet were bolted to the ground. She was shaking all over. Her throat burned, and her eyes brimmed with tears. Her lips trembled like dry leaves on her face. She moved her hand up to wipe tears out of her eyes… she was afraid. Afraid to go near him, afraid that he might kill her.

"Are…are you …going to hurt me?" she finally chocked out, stepping back further and finding a little solace from the rising fear as her back touched a tree standing just behind her.

"Of course not," Kai said, making his voice silky smooth again. "Why would I want that?" He stumbled forward, clutching his torn hand. In one swift motion he tore it off completely, throwing it aside as if it was something he didn't need.

The skin on his torn hand peeled off like an old wallpaper, and within moments it was left charred. Its black ashes disappeared in the wind, leaving behind nothing as if it wasn't even there a second ago.

Kai shuffled forward, completely reducing the distance between them. His icy cold hands touched her face, and he tucked a few bangs behind her ear. He stared at her lovingly, perfectly masking his urgency. The twinkle in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by this hollow hunger hovering dangerously over like a ghastly cloud.

He parted his lips and leaned in to nibble her ear. She felt strange under his touch, as if tiny insects were crawling over her skin. She wanted him to back away. Defiantly, she placed her hands between them. Her fingers touched his heart that was beating so slowly under his chest.

"Just a little. It won't hurt a bit," he assured curling his fingers around her throat. He looked at her intensely for a moment. His lips thin and hard with exhaustion, almost white like the rest of his sickly pale skin.

His hair sticking to the sweat on his hollow cheeks looked just as lifeless as his skin. She didn't know what was wrong with him. Her mind still reeling with shock, desultory and unable to give words to anything. Her eyes glazed over, continued to just stare into his grey orbs.

He leaned in slowly, pulling his jaws apart so far that the skin around the mouth ripped open. His unhinged jaws showed two large canine teeth poking out like needles. He looked ghastly, inhuman, and nothing like the beautiful creature she desired. Hilary's pupils dilated, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream but nothing came out.

So quick… she saw nothing. He drove his teeth into her neck, tightening his hold around her pulsing throat. Her eyes stretched to their limit…waiting for the pain, but she felt nothing. Only a slight pricking sensation when he moved his jaws over her neck. His lips wet on her nape were getting warmer.

Her eyes saw it…all of it. The colour spread through his veins, the rosy paleness returning with force in his skin. His hair growing down his shoulders, and the same ferocious beat of his alive heart vibrate through her finger tips deliciously. The heat rising under his skin exploded within him with mountainous force, and instantly flared. It was as if she was close to a burning fire.

Suddenly he let her go, and staggered back. He flicked his head back, tearing his shirt to pieces and opened his mouth. A loud shriek erupted out of his throat, scattering the birds sitting on the trees. They flew out madly in all directions. Hilary pressed her hands to her ears. It was a strange sound that made every fiber in her body shudder.

The scream dragged on as if hitting the surrounds like an unwanted echo. Kai slumped down on his knees, moving his head further back. His mouth still open, his lips covered with wispy lines of fresh blood…her blood. His ribs poked out of his torso, exhausting themselves of the air as the last bit of sound passed off into silence.

Kai snuffled, and tipped his head forward, his lips parted in ecstasy. It touched his face so tenderly as if tempting him to hold on to it. He looked beautiful, alive, and virile …ready to claim her and her willing body that now shamefully and suddenly ached for him. Her own unwanted thoughts made no sense to her.

He let out a dreamy loud sigh, and licked off the blood from his soft lips. A hollow ache throbbed between her legs. She wanted him to envelop her with kisses, cover her with his chaste, flowing hair. Let those lips wander between the flesh of her intimate folds, and drink in the flow of her milky juices. How badly she yearned for him; he hardly knew.

"You should go home," he said in a calm voice, getting to his feet. The rush of euphoria seemed to have left him. He stood straight, wearing the familiar look of seriousness that was usually on his face like a well-placed mask.

An odd earthy smell rose from Kai's body; warm, slightly musky, and inviting. It filled her nostrils and delightfully tantalized her senses. When he moved his lips, the words wafted over to her… feathery light. So light that she almost felt them on her lips.

He looked down at the shredded shirt, and then returned his attention to Hilary trapped in the heady aroma of his ever-inviting body. He slowly moved the bangs out of his eyes and held his hand up. It was starting to grow back with alarming speed.

A large bone protruded out of what was left of his hand, and forked out. Fresh veins slithered over the bones, and fine threads of muscle twisted around them. A fine whitish cover of skin latched itself over the frame…within seconds, he had a new hand.

He clenched his fingers again and again, cracking his knuckles. Blood pumped quickly through even the tiniest vein, giving it the same rosiness the rest of his body had. And as if like an added effect, fine nails poked out of his fingers. His features gathered into a look of satisfaction. He was whole again. Looking healthy and unharmed just like the day she met him.

Hilary placed her hand on her nape, brushing her fingers on the two tiny holes that ached dully. The skin around them cracked, itched a little. But it didn't bother her much. "Alright," she said after watching him dreamily heal himself, as whatever he did was always such a magnificent feat.

"I will come to you by nightfall," he assured her, bringing a twinkle of excitement in her eyes.

Hilary grabbed his dusty coat, and walked out of the clearing slowly. Thinking about so many things she would ask him. She brushed off the coat, and looked over her shoulder at the demon looking back at her. She sucked in his scent, and smiled to herself before she looked ahead and left him behind among the trees.

**# # # # # # **

"I don't think it is even necessary," Tala said, getting impatient as the last bit of sand was scooped out of the grave. "She is dead…let the dead rest."

The old man standing next to him clamped his hand on Tala's shoulder. "I am aware of your distress," he said in a measured voice, getting nothing but an angry growl out of Tala. "You may need her blood, just in case."

The red haired man jerked his head at him, his features warped in anger. "I already did that after I killed her, remember?" he bit out, turning his eyes away to look down at the cracked old coffin covered with dust and earth.

He didn't want to look at her, even if he knew nature would not have touched her even after all these years. The thought of seeing her eternally sleeping made him feel a pang of longing. And then jealously…he was after all not someone she ever loved.

Tala knew he would feel desire again, an empty and a perpetually unreturned desire. He knew what her face looked like, and how beautiful it was between the messy black tangles of her wavy black hair. Her full lips he used to claim so passionately. Her hands resting on her bosom would evoke thoughts within his own bosom.

"It is for your own good," the old man whispered next to him, his low voice got carried off by the wind somewhere unknown. Next to him, Tala didn't hear a thing. His mind undecided, whether he wanted to see her or not.

Tala's heart leapt in his chest, when one of the men rammed the shovel's edge under the coffin's lid and pushed down the handle. It took several attempts before the lid came off with a loud crack. The sturdy man slipped his fingers under the lid, and pushed it up.

Tala's breath caught in his throat, his eyes darting around the corners of the coffin. There was nothing inside…it was empty.

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**AN:** I see the reviews are dwindling. It is frustrating for the author when readers leave the story without even informing the writer what they found unimpressive. If you are shy to review, please, always leave a pm.

Anyhow, I hope this chapter was decent enough. After reading this, you will realize this story is not fluff and romance. Happy reading.


	9. New Wings

**Chapter Eight:** New Wings

**Note:** I saw a few mistakes in this chapter, hence I corrected them. I deeply apologize for reposting the chapter.

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Tala jumped into the gaping grave, raking aside the grit and sand with is fingers. He moved the earth frantically aside, making a scoop of his hands to throw out the sand slipping into the cracked coffin creaking under his boots. A large crack ran down the coffin, and Tala's long legs broke through the barely holding wood. His boots hit the empty base with a dull resonating thud.

His teeth set, and his brow severely disturbed with deep furrows. A look of desperation clouded his young face, and his green pupils dilated. A vast thread of thoughts spread in his mind like an intricate web. "Where is she?" he breathed out softly, listening to the bubbling sound of the water cascade over the grayish stones.

"My God," the ragged voice of the old man filled the silence, "she rose up from her grave."

"Don't be a fool," Tala said, looking up the old man standing hunched next to the grave. "Do you see any sign of breakage?"

"A grave robber then?" asked the old man, pulling back his drooping lids to look at Tala clearly. The skin around his eyes was crinkled and dry; he was well beyond the age of youth, probably waiting for the right time to be joined here with earth.

"Maybe," Tala said, shaking his head a little. He stretched out his arms, and placed his dirty hands on the unevenly dug edges of the grave, and pulled both his legs out. He sat on the coffin with a stoop to his back, and picked up a large stone between his fingers.

"You can't possibly suspect the tribe?" the man said, putting out his hand as if he was already fighting for the village's defense. The thick lines on his worn out face stretched as tension ensnared it.

"Really? Why can't they? A lot of them desire it," Tala replied, climbing out of the grave. He threw the stone at the brook. It skittered and skimmed across the water's clear surface, before bouncing off the large stone.

"Tala…you should think before accusing your own tribesmen," he said, raising his voice a little to subdue the coming accusations.

"And you should know your place," Tala snarled, gritting his teeth. His green eyes flecked with anger carried resolve and heat of vengeance. "The heavy mark of age on you does not make you older, or wiser than me."

The old man hung his head in apology, and muttered something that Tala refused to acknowledge or even listen. His eyes were settled on the crinkled skin on the old man's hands. They looked leathery and devoid of life. Ripe old age had settled itself in his skin, and it was here to stay.

Tala turned his gaze, and looked down at the mud under his nails. He cast his gaze on the slab again, reading the name and left the grave without looking back again.

**# # # # # # **

When the thick curtain of night was drawn and sleep shrouded Hilary's thoughts, a vague flapping sound stirred her dream. She opened her eyes, looking around for Kai, but felt disappointed when the same room greeted her. A chill was travelling in through the window she had left open for Kai.

Hilary turned on her bed, only to have the sound disturb the quiet in her room. She opened her eyes again, and pushed back the sheets. A thick whitish mist fogged the window glass, and ghosted into her room. She got out of bed, and slapped her feet on the wood that was cold as ice.

She took cautious step for the widow, feeling the stab of cold fully envelop her face as she drew near. She stopped, and leaned her head out a little; her eyes ran over the fog rising up from the forest just beyond the road. And there on the second floor terrace's handrail sat Kai.

A large leathery wing moved up and down rapidly, beating the still air underneath it. It was so thin that Hilary thought it would tear up if he continued it. But it didn't, instead the dry skin on it smoothed itself out a little, that now it looked almost velvety like his hair.

And before she could let out the sigh trapped in her throat, another folding of skin tore out of his shoulder. It dangled from his shoulder, and then fanned out. Kai shook it a little, removing the sickly coloured goo caked on its thin bones. Slowly it became fine and thin, so thin that she could see the fog on the other side.

With a heavy single flap from both the wings, he stood up on his feet, and turned round to meet Hilary's desire-filled eyes. A smile ghosted on his lips, as he folded his wings again without even touching them. All Hilary could do, was admire him.

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**AN:** Sorry for the late update. I was busy with some work, and didn't get any time to write anything. Yes, this chapter is short, but hopefully I will make up for it with the sauciness in the next one. Happy Reading.


	10. No Stranger

**Chapter Nine:** No Stranger

Rating **Warning**: Mature sexual content. Those not interested, can read after the second breaking line.

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One second Kai was there on the handrail, the next he stretched out his leg to climb into the room. His wings hung down from his back, supple and limber. Hilary stepped back, and watched as he settled his bare feet on the wooden floor. The nails on his feet were just as keen and pointy.

His wings slowly moved back into his shoulders. Her eyes filled with shock could see the surface of his skin ripple and push up, as the wings moved and spread underneath his ribs before stilling themselves completely. He brushed his fingers on his chest, his lashes lowered over his downcast eyes.

As the thick clouds rolled out, shaft of silver made his skin dance with the same light. And just like before, he stood denuded of colour, looking pure and alabaster. Dapples of red rose up in his eyes, and they shone with a ferocious, almost feral intensity. His gaze heavy on her, made her weak with intense desire.

Warm blood rushed through her face, and a dull ache throbbed between her legs. She wanted him so desperately now. She rubbed her slick hands together, and reached out to touch his face. His skin felt smooth under her fingers with just a few grey hairs dotting the side of his sharp jaws.

Kai got paler, and paler until it looked as if Hilary was touching a ghost. She pulled back her hand suddenly, feeling like it would fall right through him. His lips parted in amusement. "Don't be sacred," Kai whispered, and held his gaze. "See? I am not a ghost. You can touch me." He grabbed her hand gently, and placed it against his cheek.

Hilary blinked, clearing the haze out of her eyes and trailed her fingers down to his lips. They were soft and pinkish, just as she remembered them. She pressed down her fingers, and watched the blood flow around the tips. Kai held her fingers, and licked them before pushing both of them in his mouth.

His mouth was warm and wet around her fingers, as he sucked on them by rolling his lithe tongue. Hilary turned her eyes away, feeling helplessly aroused; Kai was teasing her. He continued his tamed teasing, moving her wet fingers in and out of his mouth, until she got extremely heady. Her eyes fluttered a little when he finally pulled them out and licked his lips.

Hilary couldn't help herself; she moved forward and looked up at him pleadingly. Kai let out a soft chuckle and leaned down, taking her lips in a warm kiss. He pushed his warm tongue in her mouth, and explored with the delicate skill of an ardent seducer. Hilary moaned, knowing what was to come after this.

Kai broke the kiss, and gently led Hilary to bed that in her mind always felt cold without his warmth. She slumped down as if the strength holding her had long left her legs, and now she was just a lifeless doll. Kai lowered himself next to her and settled his legs on the bed, shifting a little so that they sat face to face.

He stretched his hand, and pulled down the zipper of her night-shirt and slowly slipped it off her shoulders. Cold wind lashed her breasts, and her nipples tightened at the thoughts of delightful anticipation. He moved his hands down, pulling her underwear along her thighs and off her legs. She sat completely nude now, looking at the deep crimson blood-spots in his beautiful eyes.

Kai leaned in and placed his lips on her throat, sucking and licking. Hilary's breath got caught again as she desperately tried to breathe in the cold air. He moved his head down, leaving a trail of wet kisses on her collar bone and supple breasts, before he settled his warm lips on her perked nipple and sucked hard. She placed her face on his thick hair, breathing in the earthy, intoxicating smell.

He draped his arm around her waist and pulled her a little closer. Her legs spread wide on his as he moved his hand between her legs and cupped her sex. Hilary didn't want him to stop. She wanted him to lavish her with kisses just like last time. Make her lose herself in those base desires, let his sinuous lithe body dance with her intimately.

Teasingly, he pushed a finger in and her muscles clenched around it. It ached badly, wanting to be filled with him. She was breathless now, moaning and mewling as his mouth, that sinful mouth of his moved lower and lower until it finally found the place where she wanted him to go.

Hilary was desperately wet with need. The more he kissed and licked between her womanly folds, the needier she felt. Bowed down between her legs, he looked like a saint with pure gray hair, relishing the sweetness of her body. She pushed herself a little against his face and he laughed, sending a delightful ripple tearing through her whole body. As if a knot untangled, she released her fluids squeezing her eyes shut.

As last breath caught in Hilary's throat passed through her being, her eyes fluttered open. A thick veil of mistiness eroded her vision. She moved her hand around on the bed, and placed her hands on Kai's shoulder. He sat up straight, eying her with the usual docile lust, passing his tongue on his lips.

"It seems you want more," Kai said, lowering his voice that it seemed nothing more than a whisper to her.

He brushed his fingers along her legs, and took hold of her thighs. His nails dug in her skin a bit, and he pulled her on his warm lap. Hilary did not protest, she desired to feel him more intimately. Slowly Kai pushed himself inside of her, burying himself deep inside her warmth.

She clung onto to him when he pulled himself out, and pushed back in again; starting the same ritual of consummation she burned for. His hands caressed her sweaty back, and his lips kissed her so tenderly that it was impossible to think he was not human. So what if was inhuman? She desired him, and never wanted to let him go.

Her insides burned with a delicious ache, and her walls clamped down on his hard length as he frantically ravished her willing body. Feeling herself get close to that anticipated release, she wrapped her legs around his narrow waist, smashing her breasts against his chest. Her skin slipped against his, increasing the spreading ache of climax just around the corner.

Kai bit down on her neck again, sinking his teeth inside a little until he drew blood. That spark of mild pain mingled with her pleasure, finally broke down the walls of her desire. That same beautiful feeling of abandonment engulfed her. So intense and unruly … she wanted to feel it over and over again, until nothing remained of her.

She leaned against him, putting her face in the crook of his neck. Her laboured breath evened out slowly, until those last sparks of pleasure got subdued by passing seconds… still leaving that afterglow of desire. She untangled her legs, and quietly he pulled himself out of her, leaving a hollow pang of arousal within her.

Putting her hands on Kai's chest she pushed herself back a little, sensing that same weakness and the heavy feeling of drowsiness. Slowly, Hilary lifted her eyes still filled with lust and desire for him. He was quiet and his expression blank as he studied her, as if watching the outcome of his actions.

Nothing disturbed his features, and those remarkable colour-shifting eyes of his now had grey filled in them by an expert painter. With hesitation, she brushed her fingers on his cheeks and lips, brining out a wisp of smile on them. "You should go to sleep. Don't you have to attend your institution tomorrow?" he said calmly, having full control on his voice.

Hilary lowered her hand on her lap, feeling the spread of that same unwanted sourness between her legs; she was still not used to him yet. "You look tired," he said, sounding almost fatherly. The parental gentleness in his voice made her feel guilty…the kind she had never felt before.

Kai pulled up his zip, and gently moved her off his lap, settling her close to her pillow as if she was a child and he her father about to put her to sleep. He grabbed the sheets and pulled at them, looking at the confused expression spreading on her face. He covered her nude body with them, and moved to get out of the bed.

"Wait," Hilary said, taking hold of his wrist. He turned his head at her, his features gathering into a puzzled look. "Don't leave. Sleep with me."

Kai returned her desperate gaze coolly, casting a brief glance at the window before returning his attention back to her. He took in a large in take of breath, and breathed out "alright," before slipping beside her under the sheets.

A sigh escaped his lips when his back met the softness of the mattress. When was the last time he slept like this? He couldn't remember. Hilary curled an arm around his waist, and settled her ear against his warm chest. His heart beat resonated in her ear, lulling her to a serene sleep. She shifted a little one last time to kiss his neck, before she fell asleep.

Kai too closed his eyes, putting his hand on his forehead. A thread of pleasure and relief spread across his veins as his body rapidly healed, ridding itself of the insidious poison for the very last time. Kai smiled, before indulging himself with this nectar of peaceful sleep…he had not felt since a few hundred years.

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Morning light broke open the darkness in the sky, and the sun exploded over the horizon, renting every gray shade in half. The usual sounds wafted to Hilary's ears. She wiggled them, and stirred in bed stroking her fingers on what she thought was Kai's flat stomach.

Her eyes snapped open, and her gaze ran over the whole room like a fast bullet. The room was empty, and Kai was gone. She shoved back the sheets and jumped out of the bed, bracing her feet on the floor as the sleepy dizziness forced itself on her body and eyes. The cold morning air bit into her naked body.

She looked outside her open window, but found nothing. _Maybe he has gone out?_ She assured herself, covering her exposed breasts and nipples standing under the lashes of coming winter. Slowly she stepped away from the window; briefly letting her human gaze wonder as far as the eyes could see over the cluster of trees beyond the road.

Nothing…but the hiss of the wind and the crackling of dying leaves filled the air. A faint smell of earth permeated her room, but it was missing his smell. Thinking that there was nothing she could do but wait, she left the empty room to take a shower to get ready for her University.

The whole afternoon, her thoughts kept wandering around. Had he really left? Was he ever going to come back? And despite the fact that only half the day had passed, her body was aching badly. She felt like a drugged man lying on the street, waiting for someone to give that poison to her. To relieve her senses, her mind of this odd physical hunger.

Hilary braced her nerves, brushing aside unwanted thoughts of his disappearance. And then, something flashed in her mind. That day in the forest, perhaps he could have gone there? This thought twitched up her lips in a smile, and for the first time during this whole dreadful morning, her spirit felt a burst of hope.

As soon as her period ended, she bolted out of the university like a convicted madman escaping prison. She traced her steps again… running over the dried leaves strewn over the floor like a beautiful rug. Flowers were dying, and getting churned along the wind. Her dark brown hair fell in her face as she ran and breathed loudly.

After some time, she came to that same spot. It no longer looked like a clearing. Brown leaves covered the dried grass underneath, and the trees stood nearly nude with their bare branches reaching out for each other just over her head. Disappointed, her lids drooped low and she turned around to make her way back to her house.

A loud crackle behind her made her spin around with excitement. The man before her wiped the smile off her face. A look of pure hatred clouded his features, and anger flecked his eyes. Shoulder length red hair flowed around his young face. He wore casual clothes, the kind any man his age would wear.

When Hilary said nothing, he took a sharp in take of breath and looked more intently at her with a sardonic smile. "Looking for your demon mate?" he asked, raising his eyebrows high.

The question knocked the wind out of Hilary's lungs. _How does he know?_ She wrapped an arm around herself, and took one step back to increase the distance between them. The wind blew harshly in her face, not taking that look of horror out of her eyes.

"You look surprised?" he said with a chuckle, folding his arms across his chest. "He is not here." His expression quickly changed, now he seemed serious and resolute.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Hilary defended herself, listening to the loud crunching of dead leaves as she took another slow step back.

"Don't play dumb with me," he said firmly with a voice that carried fully over the noise of the wind. "I can smell him all over you." He pointed his finger at her, as if accusing her of a heinous, wanton crime.

Hilary hunched her shoulders slightly under the coat, sensing the cold penetrate through to her warm skin. Thinking that it was no use lying, she relaxed her loud breathing and waited for her heart to quiet down. "What do you want?" she asked, peering through the bangs over her brown eyes.

The man before her moved a little, making her muscles tense. He took a good look at her, moving his eyes up and down her form. "I just came here to warn you. It is not nice to play with demons. If you are not careful…" he broke off, narrowing his eyes on her, "you will die."

Hilary clenched her teeth. Anger swarmed her being like filthy flies. "Are you threatening me? Just who do you think you are?" she screamed, trembling with seething rage.

"It depends upon what you make of my warning," he answered with an air of composure and unfolded his arms. "If you do get killed, don't say I didn't warn you. Kai can be so fickle with his lovely ladies sometimes. But then again, so am I." He chuckled, clucking with his tongue.

"I…I summoned him. He serves me," Hilary said, feeling her voice waver a little at his threats.

"Oh," the young man said, feigning shock. "I didn't know he allowed himself to become someone's little pet like that." He uttered a loud laugh that thundered in Hilary's ears, already hurting from his previous words.

"I don't know what you want with Kai, but it has nothing to do with me," Hilary broke off, curling her frosty fingers into fists, "why don't you take it up with him … whatever your name is."

The young man took a deliberate step forward, but Hilary held her ground not budging from that spot. "It has everything to do with you. Why don't you ask your little friend why he came here when you summoned him, when he can always choose not to?" he asked, delightfully staring at the puzzling look surfacing on Hilary's cold face.

"Shut up," Hilary snarled, baring her teeth. "Stop running around in circles. If you have something to say, say it."

"You are an abomination that needs to be exterminated now. Who knows, he has probably impregnated you already," he said in a deep accusatory voice, contorting his face.

Instinctively Hilary stroked her flat stomach as if she would find the heartbeat of the thing germinating inside of her. Her finger tips trembled over the cotton covering her belly button that would become the nurturing line of life for her son…what was she thinking?

Beads of sweat erupted on her face, getting so cold under the wind that it felt as if someone had sprinkled spangles of snow over her. _Am I going crazy?_ She thought, curving her hand over her stomach. _Do I want his child now?_ She gulped down the air burning her throat. This man was driving her crazy. There was no way Kai would do that.

"I'll send your regards to Kai when I see him," she said, quickly masking her expression under amusement. "What was your name again?"

"Tala," he said, eyeing her carefully. "Though he does not like being humoured, maybe you should ask him why he graciously decided to lend a bit of his precious time to a useless mortal like you."

The words hammered her ego, but she shrugged them off and turned slightly to leave before his voice stopped her again. "Be careful, silly little girl. Sometimes it is important to look beyond things," he said, and disappeared beyond the drying shrubberies leaving Hilary under the golden light of the sun peeking through the clouds.

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**AN:** I hope this chapter made up for the previous one.


	11. The Summoning Butterfly

**Chapter Ten:** The Summoning Butterfly

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Tala's words still rang in Hilary's ears; painful and ambiguous. She sauntered all the way to her home, thinking over and over about what he said. Was he lying or being truthful, it was hard to say. It was not as if she had asked the oddly secretive demon about why he chose to come to her… but didn't he say he was here because of the summon? Was he lying?

She frowned, wrapping her arms around herself. Her steps fell on nothing but dry leaves, and wilted blossoms that were once blooming pink. Now the tree branches lay bare after the painful first breath of winter. The cool wind blew in her face, and her cheeks ached under the palpable iciness. She lifted her eyes and saw the sun getting crowded out by the coming clouds.

It was probably going to come pouring down soon. Hilary took quick paces, keeping her weary eyes ahead on the road bending through the thick forest. After a few minutes of her toil against the weather, her house loomed into view, looking slightly hazy behind the rising winter fog. The two cherry blossom trees outside her gate had been completely ravished by the unkind wind. Now they stood solemn and drooped, lamenting the loss of their children.

Hilary's gaze, as if under the spell of something slid to her closed window. She widened her eyes and tried to look through the veil of distance, but couldn't see anything. A sigh rose up to her lips. She quickly made her way through the small wooden gate, and strode through the yard covered by the ruined flowers and leaves.

The inside of her house was warm. Hilary closed the door behind her, and hanged her sweater on the peg. She looked around; it seemed even the maid was out. Thinking that she had probably gone to get things for lunch, she took off her shoes and stepped onto the wooden floor. File crackled in the fire place, and a fresh smell of onions rose up from the pot hanging over the hearth.

She looked around one last time, as if expecting something and slowly climbed up the stairs. Occasionally as her feet landed on the wood, it creaked from old age. It was no surprise; this was her great grandparents' house. They were the landlords of this small land before the government took it over. Her father worked for the family business and her mother was a house wife.

They got married at a very young age. Her grandmother always told her, how her father was only fourteen when the two families decided to join hands in business to save what was left of their money. Her mother was three years older than her father, and had a similar background. Despite being married for twenty six years, they were still very much in love. Hence the reason for her being here on her own.

Whenever her father was not busy, both of them would take a trip abroad. It was not like they didn't care about their daughter. She had been given enough liberties. Her father never stopped her from hanging out with her friends, or imposed any other restrictions. But despite all this, he was still a very strict and conservative man.

Hilary stopped next to the traditional table set close to the wall. It was decorated with family photos. It showed her gain in height, her missing teeth, and even the embarrassing braces she wore. Her parents however, despite the fact that both of them were in their forties, were still very youthful. They looked so young with their smooth and wrinkle free faces. Something she prayed to have inherited at her birth.

Mariah always expressed jealously how beautiful her mom was, and how her shapely ass was exactly at the same place it was in college. And more than once, cooed helplessly about how beautiful her father was… beautiful enough for her to hit him with godly iron fists of different kinds. Hilary had yet to find out what the hell this 'iron fist' ever was. But always shrugged it off as one of the jokes she probably picked up from western shows.

She drooped her shoulders, and bent down a little to look into the eyes of her father. He always wore rimless glasses, and had an air of absolute authority around him. He never let anyone raise their voice in his house. Even in this still photograph, his chocolate brown eyes looked sharp and slightly icy between the smooth black hair slung around his face.

Feeling mentally prodded, Hilary gulped down the large lump in her throat. She knew her parents shared great physical intimacy, and had a very healthy sex life; almost everyone in their circle of friends knew it. It was not like her father announced to the world, or her mother gossiped around with her friends about their bed-room affairs. They were very reserved, and traditional. But the way her father looked at her mother, the way he was fervently kissing her neck once she walked into their bedroom uninvited…she remembered how angry he was.

As long as she could remember, she had never seen him that angry. She kept her head down, listening to her father's cold lecture, and the general warnings he gave about her casually throwing away his good-parenting. He was red in the face, sweating and looking downright murderous about the innocent mistake. It took her mother a good ten minutes to calm him down.

From that day on, Hilary was very careful not to anger him. She never went to their room in late hours of the night and maintained the discipline he always asked for. She never discussed anything of sexual nature with her mother, even when she heard her shyly comment about her father's bedroom generosities to her aunt. Like a naughty child, she eavesdropped when she reluctantly said that he enjoyed orally pleasing her, despite the complete obscene of reciprocation.

Hilary had blushed then. The idea of her youthfully handsome but strict father being so passionately wild in the bedroom; it just felt like a crazy fantasy. She wondered what it would feel like if a handsome man did it to her. She had to admit it; it was a secret but wild fantasy that she enjoyed sometimes. Her mother was really shy in such matters. She had never seen her openly talk about sex with anyone. She would just helplessly blush sometimes under her father's heavy gazes, but that was just about it.

And despite the slight chill in air, her face broke out in cold sweat. Her mother had explained about sex thoroughly once upon a time ago, but no one had given her permission to spread her legs out under anything with a penis. She reached out and brushed her finger on her father's face. Her fingers were shaking. The only reason he had not wed her off was because he loved her, and didn't want to pressure her into doing something she didn't want to.

But to sleep around? He never liked Mariah and her antics. In fact, he had warned her about not seeing that girl so often. How would she tell him that she had lost her virginity? She clenched her fingers, and pulled back her hand. Her eyes were still locked on his, as if his watchful eyes were staring back at her concealed rebelliousness. What would he do, if he found out? What would happen if she got pregnant?

Hilary closed her eyes, and let out shaky breaths of shame. He would disown her…she just couldn't bear the thought. She loved him so much. He meant the world to her. She loved the little things he did to make her feel like his only daughter. He would often come into her room at night to check if she was sound asleep, and would give her a chaste kiss on her forehead. This…had to stop. She thought resolutely.

With one last apologetic look, she turned around and opened the door of her room. Her eyes were downcast, as if dropping under the weight of shame and disobedience. When she lifted them, the thoughts of her father flew out of her head like a flame going out on a wick. Kai stood at the far end of the room with his eyes closed serenely.

Kai looked like he was peacefully sleeping. His lips moved slightly from time to time, so soft and rosy. He was leaning against the wall with his head bowed down. His cheeks covered with the grey cascade of his long hair. His lashes trembled slightly over his skin. His limp wings hung behind his back like two white curtains. When the door clicked behind Hilary, it brought her out of her daze. She took one slow step, creating a shallow creak.

Kai opened his eyes, and turned his head at her. His wings moved back into him, nestling themselves under his skin. She took a sharp intake of breath, and slid her gaze up to his face. He seemed serious and sober. His unruly bangs fell in his eyes and quickly they turned red, shining like rubies behind the grey tendrils.

"Where were you?" she asked with a somber expression. He didn't smile, nor did he change his hard expression.

"I need food to survive," he said in a monotonous voice, standing straight.

"Food…?" Hilary questioned, running her eyes over his face, and the tightened features. Something was bothering him.

"Yes, food," he sighed out, angling his head to bring his full gaze on her. "There are plenty of animals in the forest. I just have to catch them." His lips twitched slightly to say something more, but he stopped.

"I," she broke off, thinking about how to bring it up. Will she really be able to let him go? She had to do it. If she got pregnant, her father would be dishonoured in all the family. And her love for her father was far more precious than her sexual desires. "How…how can I send you back?"

Kai frowned, keenly looking at her. "Do you want to send me back?" he asked without a shred of emotion that wrenched at her heart. Why was she so weak for him?

When Hilary averted his steeled gaze, he spoke, "do you have the summoning vessel?" He held out his hand, his palm facing up and his sharp nails pointed at her like some sort of attack stance.

"T-the what?" she stuttered as her teeth chattered under the building chill in the room.

"You summoned a demon without any knowledge of vessels?" he said harshly, looking offended. With a deep sigh, he began again, "a summoning vessel is a rare small animal which takes in the souls of others like it…that are sacrificed." He kept his eyes on her, looking at her face and the slow formation of realization.

"I have a butterfly," Hilary said excitedly, getting nothing but a scowl out of Kai. She ran to her closet and reached in, moving her clothes aside to take out a small wooden box. It was a gift from her father. She stood close to Kai, opening the heavy lid engraved with beautiful patterns. It was small, but it had cost her Father a fortune. As soon as she opened it, a red light spilled out.

The more Hilary moved the lid up, more light escaped. It was as if something was trapped inside, trying to get out. When she opened the lid fully, for a moment the room got draped in a blood red colour, before the shade slowly lost intensity and disappeared like a dying fire. She took hold of it in her hand. It was warm, beating like an alive heart in her hand.

It was as if it sucked the chill out of Hilary's body. Her cheeks got speckled with a warm blush. It felt strange but wonderful to hold it in her hand this way. Carefully, she placed her box on her bed, and opened her hand. Cradled inside the small glass globe, It was still alive, fluttering and trying to cling itself to the glass.

"If you want to send me back," Kai stopped for a moment as his deep voice jolted her out of a long daze, "you will have to crush it inside your hand."

Hilary looked up, meeting his red eyes that were empty and without the usual fire. "Inside my hand?" she repeated, looking from his face down to the beautiful butterfly with crimson wings.

"Try it," he said, taking a step back.

Hilary met his eyes again, now filled with the sharp colour emanating from the eerie insect. "But…look if I crush it inside my hand…" she trailed off, pressing her lips together as if the thought was giving her pain somehow. "It will make my hand…"

"It will injure your hand, yes," he cut her off in a sharp voice. "And don't worry, it won't be that easy. Stop as soon as the cracks reach the core. Or you can stop before it." Standing aloof, he nodded a little, urging her to get on with it.

Hilary took two steps back, and made a scoop of her hands. Watching the ball-sized globe roll in-between her sweaty palms. She curled her fingers around the ball, and lifted up her hands. She looked at Kai who didn't look fazed, and squeezed. Nothing happened. Bit by bit, she applied more pressure until a crack ran zigzag through the glass, straight to the butterfly.

It looked like a long twisted needle on the inside, almost touching the wings of the butterfly that stuck itself to the opposite side to escape the crack. She squeezed a little harder…one more…another one. A rosy light washed over Kai. His eyes trembled, and closed like he was being lulled to sleep. It was as if the time around Kai had slowed down. He got lifted in air, pulling his legs up to wrap his arms around his thighs. His head tipped forward, and his long hair fell all around him.

He was getting dimmer and dimmer, looking like a large child in a womb. Hilary's hand trembled around the ball to smash it, before she let it go. It dropped on the floor, and bounced a couple of times before rolling under her bed. She looked down quickly, and swiftly brought her gaze back to Kai who was untangling himself. Like a dream, the rosy haze disappeared. Kai's feet touched the ground and his eyes fluttered open.

He narrowed them on Hilary for a moment before relaxing his features. "Satisfied," he rasped, clenching his right hand. "Now you know how to send me back. Do it whenever it pleases you."

Hilary said nothing in response. His icy aloofness was so painful somehow. She stretched her hand under her bed, and pulled out the small glass globe. The cracks were gone, and the butterfly shone just as beautifully as before. She put it inside the box, and closed the lid. The last light leaked out a little before getting shut out under the lid.

She turned around, clasping the wooden lock. "I see you met Tala in the forest," Kai's icy voice made her stop dead in her tracks. How did he know? Afraid to look back, she froze and held the box tightly between her hands.

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**AN:** I wanted to include Hilary's family in this chapter. I don't know about anyone else, but I value obedience and tradition. Hence the reason why I made her father that way. Anyway, the next chapter will pick up from this point. So, I hope you people continue reading.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.


	12. Devourer of Energy

**Chapter Eleven:** Devourer of Energy

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Hiromi's fingers curled nervously around the wooden box. She darted her eyes around the room, looking for a place to hide. Kai's feet slapped on the creaking wooden floor. For some fleeting moments, he stood quietly, waiting for her to say something…but his waning patience got the better of him.

"It is only polite to continue the conversation, Hiromi." Her name rolled off his tongue with a seductive purr. This was the first time he had ever said her name. Heat radiated throughout her body, and deep inside her mind, she wanted him to whisper it to her again.

Hiromi closed her eyes, composing herself. "I don't know who he was, but he seemed to know you," she said, turning around to meet the demon's watchful eyes. They shone with a lustful gleam, narrowed on her as if she was some sort of thing he desired… it was an odd feeling, but something told her he was not lusting for her body.

Playfully, Kai arched his back against the wall. His hip bones poked out from over his low-slung rough pants. Her eyes stretched out slightly when a leer tugged at his inviting lips. Teasingly, Kai stroked his nails up his groin, just missing the covered sex by a hair … he hooked his thumbs under the hem of his pants, and with a loud sigh that made Hiromi shiver, he pushed himself off the wall.

"Is that all you talked about?" he pressed, biting his lower lip in amusement. The crimson tattoo wrapped about half his waist was rippling unnaturally. A gasp escaped her lips when the feather next to his navel twitched like it was alive. Kai arched his brow and looked down at his navel.

"This isn't paradise," he said after a long pause and returned his attention back to the riveted girl, who looked a bit humiliated now at his obvious mockery.

Hilary turned her eyes away, and marched for the still open closet. She placed the box under the sheets again, and closed it gently. When it clicked shut, she turned her head a little to return Kai's undivided attention. "We didn't exactly have a discussion over you," she said, keeping her tone as guarded as possible, and walked away from the closet.

The youthful demon's nose scrunched up a little, as if he had just smelled a foul odour and was not very happy about it. "Perhaps it would be wise if I made it clear now," he paused, wagging his right hand's fingers, "you are far too…young to try and play me for a fool." He paced around her with a predatory bent to his slow steps.

"He…he," she sputtered out, not sure what to say to him.

"He…what?" Kai asked with a smirk growing on his face. "Don't stay quiet. I do not like it when I am ignored like this." He brought his eyes down to meet hers. His gaze was weighty, alive on her burning eyes.

Hiromi's throat burned. She snuffled air, and tried to meet his forcefully probing gaze. "He warned me…that…you are dangerous," she explained, sounding weak and mentally frail.

Kai's long nails speared up suddenly, and rather gently he placed them under her chin, lifting it up as he bent his head down to breath out on her face. "Did he?" he mocked the man, snaking his tongue out to lick his lips. "You are such a good little girl, Hiromi. Don't displease me like that again." And with that, he backed away, curling his fingers to pull the nails back in.

Hiromi's heart was beating in her ears. She thought it would spring out of her chest. Her hands shot up to touch the skin where he had touched just now. It was an instinctive reaction… "Why, why did you do that?" she asked, feeling embarrassed as her voice wobbled with fear.

"Do what?" he gasped out, licking up the last retracting nail. Its tip cut into his soft tongue, and it trickled a few drops of blood on his lips. A dreamy expression flickered over his face. He closed his eyes, and hummed something incoherent.

"Threaten me?" Hilary said, sounding a bit bold. She brought her hands to her chest, eyes bent on Kai.

Kai leaned his head to one side, and squeezed his closed eyes, trying to listen to a myriad of sounds the wind brought to him from so far away. Rabbits scurried into the burrows, an owl landed on a lithe branch, and a deer nibbled on few still green vines tangled around a dying tree.

"Threaten you?" he breathed out, opening his eyes to find her staring back at him. "I don't usually threaten anyone…I just kill them."

"Wha…" the word got whooshed out of her. Kai's words sounded so casual. Life and death seemed so trivial for him. "How many have you killed?" He narrowed his eyes into thin slits, and the usually line-free skin of his folded at the corners of his sharp eye-brows.

"I have killed many in my life," he revealed honestly in a heavy voice, "though, it depends on what you mean by, many." A sly smile stretched his lips. He looked amused.

The air around her was strangely cold, and Tala's words rang like tolls of a custodian deep in the bowls of hell. The skin on her flesh felt bumpy. Her hair stood on ends as if something was brushing them lightly with its fingers. Could he have…killed his own summoners?

"How many summoners …" she stopped, watching a curious expression spread on his face like a thin see-through shroud, "have you killed?"

"Kill my own summoners?" he asked, creating a look of surprise and glee on his beautiful face. He tipped his head back and burst out in peals of laughter, and for once, Hiromi couldn't understand what was so funny.

His laughter broke the clam in the room, and rang all around her. It was sardonic and heavy. It made her feel mocked…ridiculed. Even if the air was cold, her blood boiled. Was all this really funny? Somehow she couldn't see the joke in all these wanton realities he casually revealed about himself.

After some moments of fully relishing the one-sided joke, he smothered his laugh and regained his clam, collected look that still flickered with a bit of apparent mockery. He twisted his lips, throwing a lop-sided smile at her angry face. "Tala really is fascinatingly idiotic isn't he," he joked, brining that same hint of glee in his voice. "Just when I thought my ears were playing cruel tricks on me."

"You...you…heard all that?" she said aloud, keeping the fear and anger deep under her skin now. He had been playing with her all along.

He returned her shocked look with clam seeped deep in his crimson eyes. "You humans are born with so many limitations. I am not," he declared, appearing smug and haughty. "Why would you think otherwise?"

Hiromi wasn't sure if this was a question, or another odd insult that so starkly reminded her of her fragile and infinitely vulnerable mortality. She chose to remain silent; feeling like a thief caught red-handed out in the open. There was nothing to say to him, nothing to come clean about…he had heard everything.

"Nothing can escape my eyes, ears, and nose," he confessed with long pregnant pauses, looking at her odd surprised reactions that still seemed so typically human and strange to him. "I can hear, see, smell and even feel sensations from many many miles away…something which you, can never even dream of."

There was truth in his words, or at least she made herself believe it to be true. There was nothing normal about Kai. Hiromi knew he was not human; he just only resembled men. "You don't have to mock me," the words spilled out from her lips before she could hold them back.

Kai didn't seem offended. "I am not. I am merely suggesting that you shouldn't try to play the part of a foolish truth searcher, when there isn't any…by withholding things from me, that perhaps if it didn't occur to you, deeply concern me," he added heavily with a lazy wave of his left hand, that still had all those nails out.

"I didn't…" she began breathlessly, stopping at the sight of his held up hand.

Kai curled his fingers and pulled down his hand. "I told you before," he said in a slightly accusatory voice, holding his gaze in place, "you are far too young to even try and out-smart me. And didn't I just tell you, I don't threaten anyone, I prefer killing them instead. Although, I do prefer mild warnings; they are amusing that way."

She averted his gaze that exuded the cunning of an old man, and the unfaltering calm of experience. "You have never killed summoners?" she asked again, only slightly disturbing the mask of controlled expressions on his face.

Kai studied her for a moment, and then said, "why would I kill something I feed on?" His words spilled out casually, but it stifled the air around Hiromi.

A mantle of fear descended on her. Her legs moved on their own. She staggered and tumbled back down on the floor. Her shaking legs refused to obey her, but swiftly she scrambled to her feet and hurtled at the door.

"What on earth are you doing?" Kai said from behind her. "Honestly, your behaviour is most odd... and slightly annoying." He clenched his teeth together.

She twirled around, clutching the door knob in her hand. "Why would you want to eat me?" she reeled out in a single shaky breath, looking at Kai from beyond the tears on her eyes.

Kai raised his eyebrow and slapped his hand on his face, slowly dragging it down. "So now, this supremely irritating girl has reduced me to some common man-eating animal?" he muttered to himself, looking quite insulted. "Why did you even bother to summon me, when you know absolutely nothing about all this?" He raised his gaze to take a better look at her, still cowering a few feet away from him.

The fear for her mortal life slowly evaporated out of her shaking body, and mind. Hiromi embraced the truth that if he wanted to kill her, he would have done it by now. She put her hands on her face, and wiped away the fresh tears. "I don't know much about you, or this summon," she confessed, clearing her throat.

"Fascinating," Kai said sarcastically, raising his hands. "Though, considering it is you, I should have expected as much." He turned his eyes away, and stared outside the window again. His demonic vision cleaved the fog in air, overwhelming the distance. The redness in his eyes shrunk and expanded rapidly, observing everything that could not escape them.

Hiromi took a deep intake of breath, and calmed her ragged breath. The erratic beating of her heart soon caught on, and slowly returned to normal. A smother of chillness enveloped the room. She could feel it crawling over her skin, but Kai seemed unaffected by nature's ruthlessness. She fiddled with her sweater's button, still mentally struggling to press him on further or not.

"We feed on energy, rather than flesh," he began on his own, startling Hiromi who weighed his words that still seemed strange and without meaning. "That is why you always feel so tired after the intercourse." He brought his gaze slowly on Hiromi, who met his eyes with usual cluelessness and dread on her face.

"Why would…you …do that?" she fumbled through her words, not sure about how to take this further without angering him.

Her odd question was met with another frown, and an unpleasant throaty growl. "Because this is how I stay the way I look," he explained, pointing his hand at himself. "We are, or should I say, I am, the devourer of energy. It is a sort of payment from the woman who summons me, or requests intimacy." He interlaced two of his fingers together.

"Payment?" she wondered aloud. She couldn't remember anything of the sort from the book. But then again, most of the writing was either ineligible, or she couldn't grasp the meaning.

Before she could think any further, he began again after a long sigh. "Yes, payment," he paused, studying a gruel mixture of expressions painted on her fair face, "I give you whatever you physically desire, and in return I take something I desire from you. That is just the way it works. Nothing is for free, I am afraid."

His last words hung over her head; ambiguous and eerie. What did he mean by desire? "Will it affect me somehow? This energy you draw from me, I mean," she asked hesitantly, keeping her eyes and head low.

"No," he replied curtly, getting annoyed at her constant cascade of pointless questions. "Spiritual energy can be easily replenished. One night's rest is more than enough. Though, it is only true for women who are physically youthful. It is a whole different story if she is …old."

Kai's words drew her gaze to him. She looked over at him. He wore a clam expression, standing exactly where she had left him. He had not budged an inch. "Old? How old, exactly?" she asked, getting curious about his past summoners.

"Why are you so curious about my summoners' age, exactly?" he asked with mild curiosity and irritation running across his fine features. "Regardless, it happens sometimes that my summoner is very old. The oldest female that summoned me…was about…eighty five or ninety, I think."

Disgust rose up to her face, but Hiromi forcefully pushed it down. Why would she care who summoned him? But just the thought of him eating such an old woman out, was making her whole stomach churn violently. Or maybe, it was just a female thing.

"She summoned me for human company," he quelled her rising misplaced anger. "She lived alone by herself, the poor thing. All she wanted was someone to talk to. She had killed her physical desires a long time ago. Though, I very much wanted to sexually please her."

"A ninety year old woman?" Hiromi retorted as if she was defending some sort of her marked, female territory.

Kai's head snapped up, and he flashed her a disapproving glare that made her squirm. "Why are you being so defensive? I am not exactly your property," he hissed, schooling his twisted features. "She was a beauty in her youthful days; far more pleasing on the eyes than you."

"Thanks for being so honest," Hiromi huffed, and flicked him a pure look of female wrath.

Kai ignored her outburst completely and continued, "all I had to do was return her body to her former state. It was not that hard." He created a beautiful, godly smile. Even his words were godly.

"Can you do that?" Hiromi asked in disbelief; unable to believe that this man was a walking phial of the elixir of life.

Kai turned his snort into a sarcastic chuckle. "Of course I can. Didn't I tell you; I do not have human limitations," he said rather smugly, and picked up a dried cheery blossom stuck in the window pane. "Just a few drops of my blood can turn a withered flower, back to what it was before…" He bit into his lower lip, and glossed the blood over it with a lazy lick.

And he kissed it, just giving the dry petals a feathery light touch of his coated lips. Hiromi felt attracted to it like a bird being drawn to a snare. Her feet moved on their own, and her eyes felt betrayed as slowly the petals were rejuvenated, looking beautiful and pink as if it was the peak of spring.

"…beautiful and alive," Kai ended with a breathy sigh, and placed the alive flower on Hiromi's breast.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and opened them several times, feeling as if it was some sort of simple magic trick, a dream. But her vision did not play tricks on her. There it was, quivering slightly on her chest, pink and new. Tentatively she brushed her finger on it, only to watch it fall down on the wooden floor.

Kai tore his eyes away from hers and titled his head. "Two people seem to be approaching the house," he said as if in daze, and pricked up his ears, "they seem to smell like you, only older; your father and mother, perhaps?"

"What?" she shouted in disbelief, clamping her hands on her lips. Her father was home. What was she going to do now?

**# # # # # #**

**AN:** I seem to be losing my readers pretty fast. It is okay to tell me what I am doing wrong. Regardless, I hope this chapter pleases my readers somehow. The next chapter will pick up from this point. Expect the story to take a sharp turn in a chapter or two. Happy reading.


	13. An Odd Feeling

**Chapter Twelve:** An Odd Feeling

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"Are you sure?" Hiromi asked, feeling denial and a pang of shame.

Kai leaned his head back against the wall. "How many times do you want me to confess? I am not human, I am not like you, I have abilities," he lectured slowly, appearing quite fed up with her pointless questions. "Now whether you want to believe me or not…that is entirely up to you."

There was no point in pressing him any further. Her parents were coming. She had to think fast and measure her questions carefully. "C-Can you hide?" she spluttered with nervousness. Her heart was hammering in her chest.

Kai lifted his eyebrow smoothly. "Hide?" he paused, creating a bold smirk on his expressionless face, "naughty, aren't you?" He pressed his knuckle to his lips, and chuckled.

"This isn't funny," came the quick reply.

His shoulders heaved with laughter, and his long hair fell to the sides of his sharp cheeks, shrouding his young face. "This is what happens when silly girls summon me," he said, fully stifling his laugh. "Your father cannot, and will not see me, you silly silly little girl." He narrowed his sparkling eyes that swam with red allure.

Hiromi's eyes widened, drinking in his haughtily beautiful visage. "He cannot?" she asked, uncertain of her own question.

"I am assuming that you are a spectacle seeker. Can't you take my word for it?" Kai said in a measured voice, laced with a bit of his usual anger. That clam look vanished behind his irritation, and his eyes shone brightly with an underlying threat. He watched Hiromi's face lashed with the lack of knowledge, and his insult. "Step back," he ordered firmly, and stood straight.

Hiromi stumbled several steps back, watching him in anticipation. Kai's soft wings shot out of his back, and fanned out behind him. His hair fell around them like spangles of snow. "Once I do this, I will only appear before you, if you call out to me," he said, knitting his brow. "I will not repeat myself about this matter again, understood?" A look of authority washed over his face.

When Hiromi nodded rather absentmindedly, he stretched his long neck out, and looked at the ceiling. His lashes trembled over his skin, and he gently closed his eyes. His wings hardened slightly, and in one sharp movement wrapped around his body. Her jaw fell open, and her eyes stretched out. Two hook-like nails protruded out of their tips and latched to the roof.

Still fully draped till his feet, the soft looking wings pulled him up. She craned her neck, and saw with wonder as he stuck his body to the wall like a moth's cocoon. Within seconds, brown dapples covered his wings, until they took on the same colour as her roof. Hiromi's jaw was hanging open, as she tried to make out Kai's traces from the brown colour of her wall. He looked invisible.

Hiromi paced around with her eyes still on the roof where he disappeared. Nothing. Her human eyes could not see him. She expanded her nostrils, and heaved in lungful of air to capture his scent. It wasn't there. She thought about climbing her bed to poke him with something, but stopped when the sound of dry leaves and gravel crunching under the wheels filled the space.

The car engine sputtered to silence. Hiromi felt a spurt of fear, and stole a quick glance at Kai. He was safely mantled under the spread of his mahogany wings. She swung open her door and ran downstairs. Soft thumps of boots sounded on the other side, and after few seconds the door opened.

Hiromi's emotions swung between love and fear, nervousness and adoration. Her brown orbs stared into her father's, looking murky behind his crystal clear glasses. A look of surprise disturbed his features. "Hiromi," he said, prodding at his glasses.

"Father," Hiromi shouted, jumping at the man. She clasped her arms around his waist and placed her head on his chest. His rhythmic heart beats filled her ears, making her eye-lids droop.

He gently patted her head, and stroked her hair. "Hiromi, what are you doing home this early?" he asked in a gentle voice. "It's only one pm. Didn't you have classes today?" He shook his wrist, and took a quick glance at his handsome wrist watch.

Hiromi's eyes snapped open. She tipped her head back a little to look at her Father's clam face. "I was not feeling so well," she lied, feigning a convincing tired look on her face. "Where's mother?" She tip-toed, and craned her neck to look over his shoulder.

"She's outside, gathering her piles of female knickknacks from the car, I suppose," he sighed out, and placed his palm on Hiromi's forehead. "Your skin is ice-cold…Sweet heart, what's wrong?" Fine worry lines creased his forehead, and his face took on a look of parental concern.

Hiromi created a sheepish look on her face. "I didn't wear a thick sweater today. That's why." She gave a nervous laugh, and fiddled with his coat's buttons.

He leaned down and placed a kiss on her cold forehead that was beginning to warm up under the heat of the living room. "Hiromi, you can be so careless," he said with an air of parental warmth, and circled an arm around her shoulders.

He took off his shoes and stepped on the wooden floor. Hiromi matched her father's footsteps as he made his way to the living room. "Where is Sakura?" he asked looking around, and sat on the tatami mat spread on the floor.

"She went out to get things for lunch," Hiromi replied, slumping down beside him.

Her father pushed his glasses up again, and picked up the newspaper set on the small table in front of him. "She cannot even make lunch on time it seems," he said, frowning. "It's about time I fired this maid."

Hiromi curled her hands around his arm, and leaned her head against his shoulder. He sat quietly, flicking through the pages. His shirt was open at his throat, trickled with fresh sweat from the building heat in the room.

Soft steps pounded the floor, and her mother made her way into the living room. Her cheeks were flushed like Sakura blossoms against the mantle of snow. "Yuu, where is Sakura?" she asked rather breathlessly, holding a large bag that was probably too heavy for her.

Yuu closed the news paper, and shifted a little to look at her. "Masaki, I told you to leave everything in the car," he said with slight irritation. "Just put the bag aside. Trust me, no one will steal it."

"But…Alright." With reluctance, Masaki placed the bag close to the shoe rack, and stepped out of her shoes. A pleasant smile disturbed her beautiful features when she looked at Hiromi. "Someone really missed her father," she spoke in a mellow voice, and walked for Hiromi.

"Well, you have him twenty four seven; it's my turn," Hiromi said cheekily, squeezing Yuu's arm.

"Hiromi, don't talk like that," he said in a deep, firm voice and pulled out a mobile phone from his coat's pocket.

"Sorry," Hiromi said under her breath and lowered her head. Mariah's sleazy talks were really starting to get to her. One more casual sentence like that and she would have it coming to her; that long, grueling lecture.

Masaki stood tight lipped close to Hiromi. Her eyes studied the deep frown lines marking Yuu's line-free forehead. It was obvious that he was irritated now. "I-I'll make some tea," she sputtered shyly, and slinked off to the kitchen.

"Are you still friends with that girl?" Yuu asked, putting the phone on the table.

Hiromi avoided his eyes, and hid her face behind the folds of his coat. "Well," she began, skittering her eyes around, "kind of, I guess."

Yuu's features twisted a little, but he smothered his irritation quickly. "Make sure that these occasional visits here are completely stopped. And I don't want you hanging around that girl at the University as well," he ordered, keeping his tone flat.

"But…" Hiromi protested, fisting the dry fabric of his coat.

"Hiromi, don't argue with me," Yuu said, slightly raising his voice. "That girl is obviously a bad influence. And I really don't want you to turn into her. Is that clear?" He looked down at her face for an answer.

"O-Okay," she replied timidly with her eyes on his tight features that relaxed slowly into look of calm.

Masaki brought tea into the room, carrying a wooden tray in her hands. She sat across Yuu, and set the tray on the table. "How are your classes going?" she asked, putting the small tea cup in front of Yuu. Wisps of steam rose up from the cup.

"Good," Hiromi said, leaning over the table to pick up her tea cup.

Yuu took a small sip and puffed at the warm tea. "That is a rather, short answer," he broke off, taking another sip, "I hope you didn't neglect your studies in our absence?" He looked at Hiromi, holding his gaze.

"Why would I do that?" She said, shrugging her shoulders. "I am working on a project these days. You'll be the first one to see it." She stretched her lips.

"Alright," Yuu said rather incredulously, injecting the usual gentleness in his soft voice. "But, I do expect to see it."

"…" Hiromi opened her lips to make up some sort of elaborate excuse, when the bell sounded. "I'll get it," she said, scrambling to her feet. She took long strides, listening to her father's low complains about Mariah waft to her ears.

She opened the door, sensing a sudden stab of chill and dread engulf her. On her doorstep stood the girl with piercing pink hair, wearing her typical wide grin. Next to her Salima stood with a scarf wrapped around her neck. She weakly smiled at Hiromi and vigorously rubbed her arms.

"Hey there," Mariah squeaked, and peered into the house. "Looks like your super hot daddy is home. Can I get a chance to hug him just once? Please?" She pouted, clasping her fingers together.

Hiromi stepped outside, and turned her head to look at her father who was still talking to his wife about something. "Are you crazy?" Hiromi hissed under her breath, pulling at the door's knob. She left the door open just a crack, and stood hunched on the thick doormat.

"What's so crazy about it? Just look at your father." She pointed her hand at the door to convince Hiromi about her strange infatuation. "Your mom is soooo lucky. She gets to get inside his pants," she sighed with a perfect dreamy expression.

Salima gave a tight slap on Mariah's head. "Geez Mariah, would you shut up already?" she said, pulling up her brown coat's collar. "We know about your stupid feelings, okay?"

"Humph, a bunch of dykes," Mariah muttered, smoothing down her stray bangs with her fingers.

"Yeah, she should totally be thinking about doing her own dad, because in your honest opinion, he looks far too young and hot to be taken seriously," Salima said with irrigation. "Anyways, how is your part of the project coming along?" She shifted her gaze over to Hiromi, whose panic-stricken eyes were darting back and forth between the slightly open door and Salima.

"I haven't touched it since the last time you guys were here," Hiromi said in a heavy voice, folding her arms. "What about you?" She wiggled her toes and breathed out noisily.

"You have turned into quite the slacker." Salima gave a soft laugh. "But, I haven't done anything either. How about I see what you have done, and then we can discuss how to take it further," she suggested, nuzzling at her coat's rough collar.

"Right now?" Hiromi blurted out, looking uneasy.

"Do you want to fail us both, honey?" Salima said, pushing a few bangs out of her eyes. "Is this because of your dad?" She frowned at Mariah, who looked back at her innocently.

"Great, now it's my fault," Mariah said in a huff, turning her head away childishly.

"Of course not," Salima said with a sarcastic edge to her voice. "You only winked at him and left that elaborate love letter."

Mariah snorted in reply and cocked her nose up.

"Father doesn't want me to hang out with her any more. If he finds out that she's here, I'll be in big trouble," Hiromi said, biting her lips nervously.

"Who could blame him," Salima said honestly, stretching her eyes lightly to clear out the film of haze. "Nobody is retarded enough to leave, 'dear hot dad' love letters in mail boxes."

"Correction; super, ultra, mega hot dad," Mariah corrected boldly, creating a leer on her face.

"You know, leave her here to rot. I have got to discuss that project," Salima said with a broad smile, and stepped on the porch.

"Hiromi," a mellow voice came from inside the door, "come inside with your friends. It is cold outside."

"Y-yes, mother," Hiromi chocked out, and opened the door slightly to look inside.

Yuu and Masaki were climbing up the stairs. He stopped at the third stair and looked her way. "Do you want to catch a cold?" he said in a deep voice, clutching his mobile phone. "Get inside, now."

"Y..yes, father," Hiromi stuttered nervously and opened the door to let Salima in.

"Nice to meet you, Yuu-Sama," Salima said politely, bowing down. "I hope you had a pleasant trip."

"Salima, was it?" he asked with a heavy, probing gaze. He sized her for a while, standing quietly on the creaking stair. "It is quite cold outside. What brings you here, at this time?"

"We are working on a project together. I just came here to discuss it," Salima explained, keeping her tone respectful and polite.

"I see," Yuu said, after heaving a long breath. "Hiromi is not feeling well. I hope you discuss this quickly, and let her rest."

"Yes, Yuu-Sama," Salima said, bowing down again.

At that moment Mariah barged in, hissing and shivering. "How could you two just leave me outside…Oh," she broke off suddenly at the sight of Yuu, whose features took on a different look. His jaw went tense and his lips twitched a little into a look of mild anger. "Yuu-Sama, you are back." She blushed, clasping her hands behind her back.

His gaze shifted a little and he settled it upon Hiromi. She could tell he was forcing down the irritation and anger. "Yuu-Sama, I brought Mariah along," Salima started, watching as he returned his heavy gaze on her, "it is a long walk here from the University, and I didn't want to come alone. I didn't mean to invade your privacy today. The matter was so urgent that, I suppose, I had no choice but to come unannounced. I apologize." She dropped her gaze, and leaned her head down.

Hiromi lifted her head up when she heard the low creaks of the stairs. She gulped down the lump in her throat, and breathed in the air in her empty lungs. "He will be so mad," she said, feeling her voice wobble a little.

"Don't worry, you can just pin it on me," Salima whispered, taking off her heavy coat.

"Easy for you to say," Hiromi said lowly, pressing her hands to her chest. "He will ground me again, for god knows how long. And he won't even speak to me properly."

"Chill out," Salima said, slapping Hiromi's back. "I won't bring this freak again, trust me." She pointed at Mariah, standing behind them.

"Damn," Mariah gasped in a dreamy voice, "your dad is soooo hot." She hugged herself, and twirled around. "It should be a crime to look this young...and beautiful. If only your mom didn't look this way." She frowned, brushing her hair again.

Salima rolled her eyes. "It seems that your dad's good-looks send her walnut sized brain to a mental regression trip. Not that there is a brain in the first place," she taunted, making Mariah snarl. "Bring the project downstairs. I don't want to irritate your dad anymore."

Hiromi nodded, and made her way upstairs. She tip-toed inside her room, avoiding the corridor that led to her parent's room. She rummaged through her drawer, and pulled out the project file. She looked up at the wall again…he was quiet. She couldn't even hear his breathing. He seemed still, like a dead man lying under the shroud.

The sun was hidden under the drape of winter clouds. The clouds were grey, smothering the sunlight beneath them. The whole sky was tinged by this lifeless colour. The odd chill in her room was still there, filtering in steadily through her open window. She would always leave it open for Kai. She didn't know what to do with him now…she wanted to send him back, but somehow, her resolve would wane at the sight of him.

Brushing aside all the thoughts, she went out of the room, leaving Kai alone under his invisible cover. The discussion went well, and Hilary thanked her lucky stars that her father didn't come downstairs for anything at all. The girls left before lunch, even if Mariah wanted to see her father one last time. She was annoying; something which she and Salima agreed on.

Salima promised to give Jessica Hiromi's message about their English assignment together. She was not answering her calls, and Hiromi had decided to pay her a visit. Her father was in America for his business trip, and Jessica was probably fooling around in numerous love hotels up in the city. If Yuu found about this, Mariah's teases would seem quite pale in comparison.

At lunch, she received the scolding she knew was coming her way. Yuu was obviously not happy about Mariah's perky attitude around his house. In his opinion, the girl was uncouth, crass, and highly uncultured. This time he let her off with a warning, but the next time, she would have to spend an entire year without her mobile phone, internet, and a long list of things she couldn't even remember after he was finished.

Just the thought of not sending text-messages was making her fingers itch and brain go numb. It was a monstrous and ugly thought, and her father shouldn't have put it so lightly. But she'll be damned if she spoke out right now…damned till the next year at least. She knew it, and staying quiet was the best way to trudge through this predicament.

The whole day passed along, dragging on, when she wanted it to end quickly. Her dad was mad, Kai was irritated…this was one of the worst days of her life. Yuu barely spoke her in the evening, and didn't even kiss her good-night. When the night took this world in its clutches, she closed her project file, bowed down before her parents and made her way to her room.

She turned on the heater, and slammed shut the open window, blocking out the blast of cool wind. Even in the silence of the night, Kai breaths weren't there. She listened to the footsteps of her parents make their way to their room. Turning her eyes at the clock, she watched the handle tick forward. Tick tock..tick tock…its sounds filled her room; louder than her own heartbeat.

Hiromi sat on her bed, and took in air to breathe. "Kai," she whispered, running her eyes over the spot on her roof.

A slit appeared at his face, and just like a paper, his wings peeled off. "What is it? Do you want me to come out?" he replied, appearing snowy white between the brown spread of his wings.

She nodded. "Are my parents…" she stopped, casting a long glance at her door.

"Your parents' won't come here," he said, and untangled his wings. With a shallow thump, his feet met the wooden floor. His wings changed colour, and turned grey again. "They are…making love, it seems." He smiled at the spots of blush, lashing her cheeks.

"You don't have to be so obvious," she said, struggling to inject a bit of sweetness in her harsh voice.

"So you would play with me without any shame, but seem to get offended at such a small and natural thing?" He said with a slight tilt of his head. "Regardless, I am going out. If you need something, tell me now." He walked for the window and opened it.

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting to her feet.

"To swim in the lake. It is a full moon tonight, and I want to bask in it," he explained, shaking his wings a little. "Do you want to come?"

"My parents will find out," she said, trying hard to suppress the urge to fly with Kai to the lake at night. The sheer thrill of the thought was tingling her.

"If I put them to sleep, I hardly doubt that," Kai said, looking into her eyes. "But since you don't know how that works as well, I really don't want a slew of pointless questions from you again. Just say, yes or no."

She thought over it for a second, and gave a slow nod. Kai jumped out of the window and disappeared for a few minutes. Hiromi kept staring mechanically at the open window, and then jumped at it when she heard the sounds of wing flapping near the second floor terrace. Kai flapped his wings loudly, hovering in air.

He held out his hand, and waited for her to take it. Hiromi ignored the loud beats of her heart, and clasped his hand. This was what she was waiting for since the day he grew wings.

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This has been a very long wait. But at least you people will get excited for next chapter, given the fact where I left it. Expect the unexpected in the next chapter. As the story will take on a very sinister turn. Happy reading.


	14. An Unexpected Find

**Chapter Thirteen: **An Unexpected Find

Rating **Warning**: Mild Sexual content, and Disturbing Imagery that involves Gore.

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As soon as Kai grabbed her hand, Hiromi felt a stab of cold air. He scooped her up in his arms and swooped down. A tiny yelp escaped her lips, and her eyes bugled out as the ground grew monstrously big. In the blink of an eye, he gave his wings a vigorous flap and swooshed up into the air.

Wind blew in her face, icy and merciless. She squinted her eyes against the wind, and then forced them open to look at his large wings, flapping and beating the air beneath them. They looked leathery and slightly big, fluttering on his back. Kai's hair flowed around his face, white against the darkness of the night.

His skin began to embrace the colour of the moon that shone like a pearl, looking clear and big on this fourteenth night. She **tipped** her head a little and looked down. Her eyes stretched out at the sight of small trees dotting the ground. She guessed that they were about seven hundred feet above the ground.

Instinctively, she clung to him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He slowed down, moving his wings back and took a sharp plunge down to the ground. She felt her heart jump in her chest. A loud long scream escaped her lips that cleaved through the still night. Her eyes were like saucers, watching as the ground grew bigger and bigger.

And just when they were about to hit the dry leaves strewn on the ground, Kai spread his wings wide. They billowed out, catching the cushions of air underneath them. Hiromi bounced up in his arms, but he held her down. She breathed in once, only to have that air knocked out of her. He blasted forward through the air, cutting it like a sharp dagger.

Kai's long hair flew like a grey, flapping curtain behind him. His wings stretched out in a rigid manner like two great grayish daggers, renting the cold air in two. Hiromi's face was getting pushed against his chest. His heart beats were fast, ringing in her ear.

He moved with such speed that everything around her looked nothing but a blur. Trees sped past her, as if running away. He flew through the gap in the branches, under the ones that bowed with his legs clenched together. The wind lashed her cheeks, leaving a stinging pain that only grew. Her red-rimmed eyes swam with tears, fluttering and filled with a mixture of expressions.

Suddenly, he flapped his wings forward, slowing down and gracefully spread them wide. Slowly, he descended down, putting his feet on the dried ground. When both his feet landed, he looked down at Hiromi, whose hair looked as if something had exploded in them. A smile tugged at his pink lips.

"Enjoyed it?" he teased, looking at her wind-lashed face and watery eyes. He put her down gently, and turned around to look at the lake shining like a silken cloth against the moon's white light.

Hiromi coughed out the breaths burning her throat, and slammed her hands on her knees. Her vision was swaying and her head was spinning. And the giant head ache was telling her that half of her brain was probably frozen. She put her hand on her head and lifted herself up, barely managing to stand on her two feet.

Her vision still swam. She squeezed her eyes and then opened them, peering at Kai standing beyond the momentary haze on her eyes. Her fingers brushed away the last tear clinging desperately on her eyelashes, and blinked. She watched as he soaked in the light, trapping it under his porous skin.

"I almost died from lack of oxygen. You should have told me," she demanded, arousing no response from the demon.

"You never asked," Kai said with the lazy hang of his head. His expressionless face had a slight hint of glee. "Besides, wasn't that enjoyable? Though I have to warn you, if you ever scream like that again, I will simply drop you."

Hiromi could almost hear the smile in his voice, and it annoyed her. "You know, why don't you use your mouth on something useful," Hilary taunted, seeing his expression turn into a mocking snarl.

"Speak that way to me again, and I assure you, you will receive a bite between your legs next time," he warned, forcing irritation out of his voice. "And trust me; it will sting for a while." His features shifted to a more mocking look this time.

Hiromi felt her entrance involuntarily clench. "That is mean," she said breathily, biting back a cascade of insults she had been saving for his rude attitude. "I was only joking."

"Were you?" he sighed out, and started for the lake beyond the clump of trees. His bare feet met nothing but cold, soggy ground and sparse grass under the spread of dry leaves.

Hiromi cursed him under her breath, and strode behind him, ignoring how numb her legs were getting from the cold. "I have to ask something," she said hesitantly, matching his slow pace.

He stopped, and met her gaze, staring into her chocolate brown eyes. They changed colour, again. It was as if they sopped up blood whenever he felt something strong. "Questions, questions, questions…" he said slowly with a heavy accent, "that's all you ever ask. And if I ask you something, you never have an answer. Instead, you twist my words around and make more questions. It seems that you have an endless supply of questions in your head…what kind of questions you have for me…this time?"

"Wow," Hiromi began, but quickly turned her words around at the sight of his deep frown, and twisted expression. "You said…that you returned the woman back to her former self."

He stared at her, raising an eyebrow. "You can make people young again?" she asked, drawing cold breaths that made her lungs ache now.

"Yes," he said smoothly, brushing his fingers on his lips. "But once they are young, they can never age again. It is a choice they have to make."

Surprise and shock clasped her features. "So that woman…she is still alive?" Hiromi breathed out in awe, shuffling close to Kai, to feel odd warmth radiating out of his body.

"I can sense her energy, so, yes she is very much alive. And before you ask how I feel her energy, I think we already went through that grueling and annoying discussion yesterday," he reminded her with a lop-sided smile.

Yesterday's thoughts flooded into her head. Yes, he devoured energy, and probably formed some sort of spiritual bond with his summoners. The crackle of leaves snapped her out of her thoughts. And before she could contain those words, they spilled, "can you impregnate someone?"

Her words made him stop. He turned around, looking slightly shocked. Then a flow of lust enveloped his features. His tongue snaked out, and he ran it over his lips. "I didn't know you wanted my children," he said huskily, gliding his fingers down over her flat stomach. "Do you want them?" His eyes shrunk, brimming with allure and desire that made her legs waver.

"That's not…what I.." Hiromi hissed, feeling his fingers ghost between her legs. He pushed them between her lips, and pressed the swollen bud through the fabric of her cotton underwear.

He let out a soft, throaty chuckle, running his fingers teasingly over her genitals. "What did you mean then?" he whispered in her ear, gently nibbling at her earlobe.

Warm blood rushed to her face, and a deep flush adorned her cheeks. Her legs gave out, as she sank to the ground, drawing her legs up close to her heaving chest. Kai sat beside her, teasing her and closing his lips on the soft skin of her nape. Cold air rushed against her exposed inner thighs, but she felt warm and slick between her legs.

Kai gently pushed aside the fabric of her underwear and touched her warm folds, making her draw quick shaky breaths. Slowly, he eased in two fingers, feeling her walls hug them tightly as if they belonged there. Hiromi grabbed his shoulders, as he pumped his fingers. Sensing her walls clamp down hard on them.

"I," she forced out breathlessly, "I don't want to get pregnant." A low moan rose from her throat, when she felt him draw out his fingers completely.

He chuckled at her words, his red eyes mocking her. "You cannot get pregnant, unless I want you to." With that he stood up, leaving her unsatisfied. "No need to fear, I don't want any children from you."

His last words felt like a sharp slap across her cheek, chasing away that heavy feel of lust from her body and mind. Hiromi looked up at him. With a smile still lingering on his lips, he turned around and moved away from her. She too forced herself to get up, wobbling a little from the remaining sensations of pleasure.

Hiromi staggered just a little, and braced her sock covered feet over the wet grass. When that last drop of persistent arousal left her, she took several steps and moved the branches out of the way to follow Kai. On the bank of the lake stood Kai. His feet submerged in clear water, appearing like grey ruffles under the gentle flow of wind.

The waves ebbed away and flowed back in, rolling countless slippery pebbles onto the bank. Kai stood quietly with his head lifted at the long, wide shafts of silver light. He lifted his foot out of the water, creating a small splash and firmly placed it on the surface of water. His wings slowly went under his white skin, leaving his skin bare under the night sky.

Hiromi took several paces, her features clouded by a look of wonder…Kai was walking on the surface of water. When her feet touched the water, she pulled them back quickly. The water was icy, enough to make her body shiver. She did not even look down, her eyes and attention bent on Kai. He looked down into the depths of the lake, and plunged in gracefully.

A loud splash disturbed the calm surface of the water, before it went completely still. Kai glowed like a white statue under the lake, his features rippled as the water above him moved. She could see him moving his lithe body, going deeper before he twisted it and swam back to the surface. His head bobbed out of the water, but he didn't look her way.

Kai wiped away the water streaming down his face, and lifted his body up. It floated like a swaying boat, getting gently rocked by the waves. Water slapped against his torso, and the sides of his wet face. His hair swam above the ripples, like tangles of wet threads. Closing his eyes, he stilled his body and relished the light pouring down on him.

Hiromi hugged herself. Her skin was trembling under the thin fabric of her nightdress, and her knees were getting knocked together. She parted her lips, and breathed out puffs of warm air that disappeared like a smoke in front of her eyes. She looked around, sniffing a strange pungent odour wafting to her from somewhere.

A giant cloud rolled in over head, pulling a large shadow over the trees. She squinted her eyes, and caught a glimpse of someone leaning against a cracked boulder. Darkness covered it again. She took hesitant steps, bending her gaze on the boulder worn thin by nature. There was definitely someone lying next to the boulder.

Hiromi stopped, and bent down. As the wind hauled the cloud out of the way, the moonlight skewered through the sky and hit the still body. All her breaths burst out of her in a single loud scream. She fell down, and recoiled away from the body; her gaze sliding back and forth between the hole in the chest and the face…it was Jessica.

Hiromi's hands slipped on the mud, and she fell on her back. Without reason, she thrashed on the churned ground, trying to move away from the crumpled body. Jessica was wearing the clothes she wore day before yesterday. Her calm half-lidded eyes looked back at her, as if sending a secret smile her way.

A serene smile on her eternally frozen features made her look happy…Her lush hair still scraped back into a ponytail. Her bangs whipped across her cheeks, devoid of any colour of life. A large splash sounded behind her, and in less than a second Hiromi heard a splosh of mud. Kai leaned over her, sloshing water on her head.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a very calm voice, putting his hand on her head, "did you get hurt?"

Hiromi's breath caught in her throat, came out as loud whimpers. She curled her arm around his thigh, and wedged her small shoulders between his legs as if trying to find some sort of shelter. He kept staring at her as she pressed her tear streaked face against his thigh, and trembled uncontrollably.

"You are acting very oddly," he said, standing still. "Why are you crying?"

Several sobs shook her before she opened her mouth. "J-Jessica," she snuffled, hugging his thigh tightly. "Sh-she is lying over there…someone…ki-killed h..her." She started crying, fisting his rough pants.

Kai's stare expressed mild confusion. He buried his hand in her hair, and lifted up his head to look at the dead girl. His masked expression did not change. He still appeared confused. "She is one of the summoners. And?" he asked in a clear, casual voice that made Hiromi look up at him in disbelief.

Shock washed over her features, chasing away the fear. Thin tears lined her face. Her nostrils flapped nosily, covered with a bit of mucus. Her lips trembled, and a throaty sound from her lips rose up into the moving air. Her pupils shrunk as a smile came alive on his lips. His eyes sparkled with hunger, looking dark as if submerged under the depths of the sea.

"People die," he rasped, running his finger on her cold-bitten cheek, "I see no reason to be sad here." He brushed aside a strand, and returned his gaze on the mutilated body. She was missing her heart. A huge gaping hole in her chest looked like a giant black stain from this far. Squiggles of blood stains ran zigzag on her light brown shirt.

Kai wrinkled his nose, and sniffed loudly. His brow furrowed, deepening the thin lines on his forehead. "Move," he commanded, and swiveled his head to look at the water. "Move, if you want to live."

Hilary slithered away from him, and wrapped her arms around herself. Her teeth chattered in the cold, and her eyes burned. "Don't sit there. Go and hide in those bushes," he said, pointing his hand at the bushes bearing bluish flowers that grew around a tall tree. "Now." He stretched out his red eyes, and walked towards the lake again.

Hilary dragged herself towards the shrubbery, and hid underneath it, peering through the leaves that pricked her goose-fleshed skin. A sound filled the space, floating and bubbling up from the depths of the lake. The last tears glinted in her eyes. She pressed her back against the rough tree, her eyes widening at the sight of glowing figures underneath the Lake.

What were those things?

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I hope this was satisfying. Be prepared for next chapter, because the story will take a very different turn. Happy Reading.

Aizen Kido 90 skipped incantation and rolf stomped a captain Ichigo only blew it away like nothing because of his crazy GM powers. 

If Aizen had used the same Kurohitsugi he used on Ichigo on Sajin...well...Sajin's body probably wouldn't exist anymore. (cuz Aizen did say his perfectly chanted Kurohitsugi bent space/time)

Aizen, no doubt about it. You saw how easily he blocked Tessai's spell in the flashback. Tessai does the powerful attack on him and Aizen blocks it without any incantation. The guy was like perfect in everything. And like he said he mastered every style of fighting for shinigami.

When I said that Aizen used the Black Coffin Kidou without the incantation, I was referring to when he used it on Komamura at the end of the Soul Society Arc.

I agree with Gstyles that it's kinda hard to place Aizen, Urahara, and Tessai on different levels in terms of Kidou because all 3 demonstrated that they had the high potential in that field.

Aizen said ONLY when it comes to Yammi-ji's zanpaktou that yami-ji is stronger than him.

Bleach/393/18/

There are many aspects to the shinigami. Shunpo, hand to hand combat, Kido, and swordsmanship; not to mention their level of reatsu. If you were to look at the real Databook it shows the power level in a web design for each category and captain. It also says that Ukitake's level is lowered only due to his sickness, and that Yammi-ji is not 600/600 because of his age.

I remember reading this book last year, does anyone have a link to it?


	15. A Brutal Orgy

Chapter Fourteen: **A Brutal Orgy**

Rating **Warning**: This chapter contains intensely sadistic sexual content, brutal violence, and gore. It is highly likely that some readers will find it quite offensive. If anyone is put off by such things, then I suggest either you skip this entire chapter, or read the last paragraphs. You have been graciously warned.

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The bubbling sound progressed to a mellow song, rising up like a feather on puffs of wind from beneath the surface. Kai took slow steps over the water. His feet slightly rippled the calm surface, but never truly breaking it. Hiromi dragged her fingers on the ground, caking her palms with mud and grit.

She squashed her back against the tree again, pulling her feet back. The tide came forward, touched her toes, and went racing back. She wanted to move, but Kai had told her not too. She reached out for a thick branch blocking her way and snapped it off. A few blossoms still blocked her view a bit, but she didn't want to stretch her hand out of the bush…who knew what those things were.

Hiromi leaned forward, squinting her eyes to look beyond the blue blossoms. Moon light came down like a heavy deluge, magnificent and pearly. It shone and lay like pearls over the water, sleeping serenely. She could see everything so clearly now. Kai stood silent, staring up at the moon well beyond the visible sky.

His head fell back, as if being pulled by force. His jaw fell open, and his lips trembled before a deep moan erupted out of his throat. He closed his trembling eyes, and heaved loudly. His breaths were ragged like that of a tired old man. His chest rose and fell rapidly. He curled his fingers into fists, and cracked his neck…he looked aroused.

The song grew louder and louder, bewitching everything. It was as if the air went still. There was no sound. Everything passed its noise into silence and was quiet…waiting for someone or something to break their slumber. The sound swirled in air, and snared everything. Hiromi felt her legs getting numb. She couldn't move.

It was like a song of the sirens, inviting men to their doom. She blinked, feeling her eyes ache. Her fingers trembled, but would not inch forward. Her gaze remained fixed on Kai, who looked vulnerable under the open sky. The five ghostly figures swam closer under the surface. They kissed the water's still surface, swirling like a water whirl underneath Kai. Then, almost teasingly, they slowly pulled themselves out. They were women.

Hiromi's pupils shrunk and expanded in seconds. They looked a lot like Kai. She couldn't understand herself; they did look like him, but then, there was something off. She chased around her own thoughts, trying to give words to what she saw, but couldn't. One by one, they bounced out of water like flying fish and stood up.

Their lips parted in union, gave forth shrill moans of ecstasy. Their half-lidded eyes shone with a bluish light, savage and hungry. Their youthful faces were beautiful, enveloped by raw lust. Water trickled down their slick bodies, hugging their pert nipples and the junction between their thighs. White fuzz covered their sex like silky tangles on their pliant, ghostly bluish bodies. Their bodies looked hard, armoured with something like diamond.

They looked like ghosts, singing and swaying their bodies. Seductively they pushed their long dark blue hair back, sending splashes of water into the lake. They circled Kai, whose quick breaths were evening out. He opened his red eyes, and waited for them to close in. Slowly they reduced the distance, and grabbed him from all directions.

One of the women smashed her body into him, rubbing her pelvis against his loins. One clasped her arms around his waist, pressing her body against his back. The other three watched at first, gave a girly laugh, and then joined in. One of the three kneeled down in front of him, curling her arms around his thigh. She reached up caress his hip bones.

Kai's expression lost that heavy flow of lust. His veneer of control flickered with mild lust. He curled his arm around the woman grinding her hips into him, and pulled her close. He smashed his lips on hers, pushing his tongue into her mouth. Fervently, she responded, titling her head from side to side to accept him fully into her mouth.

The others sighed loudly in union. The woman behind him latched her lips onto his nape and sucked the white skin. She brushed her finger tips on his rosy nipples, and twisted them around. Kai buried his hand under the hair of the woman kneeling before him. She reached up and hooked her fingers in his pants, running her tongue on his sweat-trickled hip bones.

He reached down, and skimmed his fingers on the inner thigh of the woman approaching him from the other side. She snaked out her tongue and gave a lick on his ear. A rosy blush speckled her cheeks as Kai moved his finger beyond the curls between her legs. He stroked her leisurely, kissing the collar bone of the woman in his arm.

Kai eased his fingers inside her, and she let out a loud cry that erected Hiromi's hair. Something felt odd. It was strangely ghastly to watch these women. They looked stranger than him with their blue hair and glowing marine blue eyes. They seemed almost watery in appearance, as if someone had pulled them out from the depths of the ocean.

But she watched, also riveted against her will as Kai buried his face in her neck and kissed her wildly. The woman in his arm gasped and sighed. She played with his grayish white hair, and pressed his face into her nape. Kai didn't even flinch when the woman sucking his nape, drove her teeth into his skin and drew blood.

The air was still silent, broken and disturbed by the moans of these women who relished Kai. He pressed the woman against himself again, tightening his hold around her waist. She gasped and moaned…until her features warped in pain. She choked and then hissed, slamming her hands on his shoulders. She pushed him back, but he did not even budge an inch.

She thrashed violently in his arms, pushing him back. Kai kept pressing her into his chest. He bit into her nape, locking his teeth inside her skin like a skewer. She pulled her jaws apart and gave an ugly snarl. The others became wary of him. He pushed his foot forward and slammed it into the face of the kneeling woman. She fell back and tried to get up.

Kai smashed his foot on her throat, trapping her underneath it. Her arms flailed wildly, splashing water around her. His fingers trembled a little inside the woman, and a painful jolt ran through her being. Her blue eyes stretched out, staring at him. Her breaths got caught in her throat, and a dribble of blood ran down her gaping mouth and inner thighs.

The woman behind him savagely mauled his neck, wrapping her legs around his waist. The last one jumped away from him and hissed, drawing out her nails. The effect on Hiromi seemed to have washed away. Now she trembled, putting her hands on her chest to slow down her quick breaths. Her face erupted in cold sweat, oddly warm under the deadly cold air.

The woman trapped in his arm, fought back weakly. Her hands trembled on his shoulders. She gave a loud, agonizing cry when Kai pressed her back again and snapped it into two. Her torso hung down from his arm like a grisly magic show trick. The lower part of her back bone shot out of her skin. Blood gushed out of her wound and fell into the water, leaving a rosy colour amid the whiteness of the moon rays.

He let her go, and wiggling like a dying fish, she drowned in the water, turning into a black ink-like liquid. Kai wiped away her blood off his lips with a sardonic smile. Sadistically, he pushed his foot forward, dragging the woman on the surface with him. He pushed his fingers further in, making the other woman tremble in pain.

Kai grabbed her throat, and slowly pulled his fingers out. "Do you like it?" he whispered seductively, and put his hand up to show her his blood soaked, long, thick nails. He jerked her neck, and pushed his nails up between her legs again. "Why don't you moan?" He rammed his knife-like nails up her entrance and squeezed her pulsing throat.

A horse moan escaped her parted lips and her eyes rolled back into her head. Her features twisted in a painful expression, froze completely, only slightly flickered by the last breaths of life. Kai moved his nails in and out of her, bleeding her out. Small chunks of meat and blood dripped down her thighs. "I usually don't do this when a woman is menstruating," he breathed on her face, and pushed his fingers in completely, "but I'll make an exception for you."

The woman clinging to him ferociously bit into his neck, but couldn't even break his thick skin properly. Ignoring her completely, as if he was being bitten by a pesky mosquito, he twisted his fingers, and moved his hand up, cutting her belly. He split her open. Her innards spilled out of her as he dragged his nails through her body.

Like a grotesque picture, her organs fell into the lake, leaving her an empty shell with cut-through lungs and a still beating heart. He stopped at her throat, and threw a saintly smile that mocked her even in death. "Let's not cut such a nice face," he said, chuckling and loosened his grip.

She fell into the lake as well, diluting like black water. Satisfied, Kai bent his head down and stared at the woman. He slammed his foot down on her throat again, cracking her wind pipe in two. He reached down, and fisted her blue hair. He tugged at her snarled up hair, and twisted her head around. She struggled violently, throwing her legs up to push him back.

She sank her foot in his stomach, but it didn't move him. He pulled at her head with a cruel smile gracing his handsome features. Like a breaking seam, the skin on her neck ripped open, and as if he pulled a mango off the branch, he tore her head off. Her lower half thrashed about, and her hands reached up to touch where her head was. Blood spurted out of her neck and body. It sank too, and her head melted in his grasp, leaving nothing behind.

Kai reached for his back to grab the woman, who quickly untangled herself and jumped several feet back. She was quick, but not quick enough. With blinding speed Kai reduced the gap between them, sending thin streaks of water flying in the air. He moved his hand forward to grab her, and she stabbed her nails into his arm.

She pushed and pushed but they didn't move an inch forward. It was as if she was trying to cut diamond with a butter knife. "Why don't you behave yourself," Kai said, twisting his arm to make her nails slip out. He swung his arm wide and slapped her. It looked like she got hit by a heavy load. She flew across the large lake like a rag doll and broke through three thick trees, before her back met a hard boulder.

A loud crack sounded. Her bones were completely broken. Blood gushed out of her gaping mouth. Her body still trembled, trying to heal itself. Kai jumped back, when the last standing woman took a swipe at him. Her long nails cleft through the fog, leaving thin white wisps in air. She moved her jaws from side to side and opened her mouth. The skin at her lips ripped open and several long teeth sprouted out of her gums.

She looked extremely ugly. Unlike Kai, her mouth was filled with several gleaming teeth. She sucked in air, and gave forth a hideous shriek. Her back bone wriggled under her skin, and right before Hiromi's eyes, it grew into a long tail. She swished it from side to side. Her legs parted, and her arms thrust forward, armed with long nails…she looked ready to fight.

"How sweet," Kai said with a meaningful smile, retracting his nails back in. "You think you can scratch me with those?" He laughed, cracking his knuckles. "You children are so lovable and simple-minded." He shrunk his eyes and leaned forward, waiting for her to strike first.

She growled, spitting out a mouthful of spittle and charged. Wildly she swung her arms in air, trying to catch a bit of his skin. But he dodged her effortlessly. She jumped up, and broke through the water's surface. Kai stepped away. His feet skimmed and skidded on the water's surface. His fingers trailed behind him, slightly submerged in water. Water jetted behind him. It went still after a few seconds, leaving a thick froth on the surface.

"This is getting boring," he sighed, peering into the lake. Hiromi watched as she drew closer and closer underneath him. Her heart skipped a beat; she blinked and didn't believe what she saw. Kai had both her wrists in his hands. Like a cutting machine, she snapped her jaws at him over and over again.

"I like your mouth," Kai said, snapping her wrists. She squirmed, hanging from his hands. He let her hands go and grabbed her jaws. Frantically, she fought back. Her muffled cries echoed in the dark. Kai dislocated her jaws with one sharp moved. She let out a gurgling sound, and her broken jaws hung down like flaps of meat.

He chuckled heartily, holding her still as she tried to slip away from his death hold. "Where are you going; I don't think you have pleasured me yet?" he said innocently, pushing his nails inside her mouth. "Take it, all of it down your throat. Just don't choke on it. And what can I say; I really do not like teeth."

She let out a guttural sound, muffled heavily by her own blood. "Ah, that's right, suck it," he said in a husky voice, pushing his fingers further in until his nails began to poke out of her neck. Seconds later, she went completely still; bleeding profusely from her mouth, and neck. He pulled his fingers back, and she splashed into the water, disappearing beyond the film of death.

Hiromi's breaths were gone. Her whole body trembled. She watched, unable to look away as Kai brutally dispatched those things one by one. Tears lined her face, itchy on her dry skin but she didn't wipe them away. She wanted to run, get out. Her legs quaked, and her whole body felt the bouts of mortal fear. A low, shaky breath came out of her throat, and stubbornly she kept the rest in…not making a single sound.

The last woman whimpered on the ground, dragging her half healed body away from Kai who sauntered for her with all his nails out. A bored expression graced his face…he was getting annoyed by all this. She snapped her head up, contorting her face. She hissed over and over again like a small wet cat, and tried to gather her battered body into a sitting position.

She didn't manage anything. Kai jumped on top of her, and with a loud impassioned cry, stabbed her repeatedly. Blood spurted out of her, splattering on the ground and falling into the lake. Sounds of breaking bones and meat getting sliced drowned out Kai's heavy breaths. He grabbed her head in his hand and lifted her lifeless body. Her eyes moved a little…she was still alive…

With one forward motion, he slammed her head into the boulder. The large stone got smashed into pieces, and so did her head. It looked like a heavy red syrup stuck to the last standing remains of the stone. She turned to ash and vanished from sight. The last parts of the stone crumbled to the ground. With a satisfied look, Kai retracted his nails and walked for the bush.

Kai stopped next to the bush and looked around. "It looks clear," he said, bending his attention on the bush. "You can come out now."

Kai's soft words fell over her ears like buzzing noises, all jumbled and noisy. She couldn't understand a word. Her breaths caught in her throat painfully were constricting and chocking her wind wipe. Her body vibrated with the loud beats of her heart. Her whole body was covered with a film of sweat, and the expression of fear seemed to have set in permanently.

"I said, you can come out now," Kai said, deepening his mellow voice that remained undisturbed by the gruesomeness of his murders. "I don't really have any time for your childishness today." He reached into the bushes and pulled her frail body out.

He firmed his grip on her arm when she buckled and sank down to the ground. "It seems it was a bit too much for you," he said in a sympathetic tone, forcing sweetness into his voice. "You should be glad you weren't here alone. Otherwise those things would have cut you in pretty pieces."

"Go home," Kai whispered, but the words tore through the noisiness in her ears. "It seems I still have some things to do here, right Tala?" A sadistic smile broke his calm features. He looked beyond the trees lining the side of the lake.

Hiromi clenched and unclenched her hands on his chest. An eerie figure came into view. It was Tala. He looked wispy, and ghostly…like he wasn't even there. Her eyes could see through his flimsy appearance. "An apparition?" Kai asked, and burst out laughing. "So you summoned those little poisoned strumpets in hopes of killing me? And just to make sure, decided to leave an apparition behind?"

"I'm surprised you are still alive," the apparition spoke in an odd, resonating voice. It wore a shocked expression on its see-through face.

Kai sniffed the air and returned his gaze to the phantom again. "I can't sense you around," he said, looking amused. "I am guessing you are well beyond where we are now. Though, if I ever caught you again, I will twist your head off. And that's…a promise." He stretched his neck out, baring his teeth.

"We'll see about that," the phantom that looked like Tala snarled, standing a safe distance away from them.

"Go home…now," Kai shook Hiromi's arm a little, who looked back at him in disbelief. "I sense no human for miles here. You should be alright if you take the road straight back to your home."

"I…" Hiromi choked, holding back the trembling words. Her tongue was tied. She couldn't even speak. Run all the way home…at this time?

"I circled the entire forest before coming here. We are still only about nine hundred meters away from your home. Your parents will not wake up till morning," Kai explained, holding her up. "I have to scour this place. I can't come with you. Go."

And with that he let her go. Hiromi's knees met the ground, but quickly, she raised herself to her feet and ran. She did not even look behind. The scenes of carnage, the women in pieces, and Jessica kept pooling into her head. Clouds rumbled overhead, and within a minute it came pouring down.

Rain lashed her face and filled her eyes but she kept running. Her feet met nothing but cold wet road, hard and broken by the weather. A giant ache in her head throbbed painfully, but she ignored it…running breathlessly as if she was being chased by a murderer.

It rained like cats and dogs. The rain whipped the pavement, and the surrounds roared with the noises of thunder. The sky ignited with blue sparks momentarily before it went still again…but it was not enough to overwhelm the sounds of breaking bones, and shrieks that played over and over again in her head like a snuff film. But she kept running. Putting all that left energy in her legs to make it home…

She didn't even stop at her gate, and quickly pulled out the front door key from under the pot set next to the window. Hiromi struggled with the key. Her hands trembled, but she rammed it in and opened the door. A rush of warmth from the burning fire enveloped her when she stepped inside. Quickly, she locked the door from the inside, took off her wet socks, and threw them inside the shoe rack. Her whole body trembled with bouts of fear and cold. She hung the key on the peg, and stumbled forward.

Her feet wobbled as she placed them on the wooden floor. Her head began to spin violently. A black veil descended over her eyes. She swayed from side to side, her hands trying to reach for the wall that stood a few feet away from her. Her head felt heavy, as if being pushed under something. Soon, her senses left her…her legs quacked, and she fell on the floor with a thud.

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**AN:** I finished this chapter a couple of days back, but couldn't post it because I had no internet. So I apologize for that.

The point of this entire chapter was to show Kai's strength, and resilience. Along with Tala's involvement in the story. I really can't say whether anyone enjoyed the chapter or not, but, I tried by best.


	16. A New Trap

**Chapter Fifteen:** A New Trap

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Morning sun burst through the grey sky in a spiral of yellow light. Its first light, golden and radiant fell down on the cold surrounds, taking a bit of chilliness out of the air. Wind swept across the dried garden, throwing dews clinging on the last green leaves on drooping branches. Sea-shells hanging from tiny threads chinked against the glass of the open window.

Yuu stepped out of his room, and gently closed the door behind him. He cast his gaze on the clock; it struck six thirty in the morning. He had over-slept today. Usually, he was always up at five O' clock. His wife called him an early owl sometimes. She was not usually the morning person.

It was warmer outside. His face broke out in sweat. He had left the fire place burning last night, and the maid probably didn't bother herself as well. A frown creased his forehead. She just had to go. Slowly, he paced down the corridor and stopped at the stairs. His eyes wandered towards Hiromi's room. Maybe, he was too harsh.

With that thought, Yuu walked for the room. It seemed colder here. Puffs of ice cold air leaked from under the gap in the door. He clutched the cold handle, and pulled it down. The door opened with a slight creak. The inside felt like a freezer. Wreaths of his warm breaths coiled in air. He looked around…the room was empty, and the window was open.

A blast of cold air smacked the hanging shells against the glass again…another loud chink filled the room. Yuu walked in, and closed the window. For a moment, he looked outside. Fog was beginning to subside, leaving behind evidence of dry leaves churning and lying on the ground, roads, and even his garden.

Yuu turned his eyes at the clock again. It was a bit too early to get up for the university. He pushed his icy cold hand in his pants pocket, and rapped on the bathroom door. No sound. He rapped again. When he couldn't hear anything, he opened the door and peered inside. The bathroom was empty.

There was only silence around him. No sounds of clinking forks, the chink of the china plates…it was odd. The maid was usually preparing breakfast at this time. Out of habit, he pushed his glasses against his forehead again, and slowly made it out of the room. The warm air outside was beginning to rush into her room. He left the door open, and watched as heat fogged the window glass.

Slowly, he climbed down the stairs. His bare feet felt the tiny cracks in the wooden stairs. This house was starting to get very old. It was about time he had it fixed. Only few months ago Hiromi complained how her roof creaked when it rained. He even lost four bonsai tress when the overhead plank snapped in two, and fell on them…it was a terrible loss. Masaki's great grandmother had them since god knows when.

He sighed; one of the family legacies was buried in the garden that day. Masaki cried her eyes over the loss. For once in his life, he was relieved. The damn things took too much of his time. Day and night, he had to snip off those ugly buds of some parasite plant that just refused to die. Three were left, but thankfully, his own daughter tripped over the pot stand and took care of the rest.

Masaki nearly fainted, and was so angry that she actually cussed at her rival cousin for her diabolical schemes to break her pots and destroy her lovely marriage. The drama lasted for a week; he was happy, Masaki was finally normal, and the dreadful trees were out of his life forever…until she went back and brought ten more of them from some distant uncle he had never even heard of.

Yuu had to build a small plant room himself in the front yard. The wooden roof was eaten through by thousands of termites, but the thing just didn't fall over those budding midgets of doom. He just refused to fix it. Sooner or later, nature just had to take its due course. And when that would happen, the new plant room was a far-fetched idea.

Smiling to himself, Yuu stepped down the last stair. He looked around, his gaze automatically stopped on Hiromi lying feebly next to the fireplace. The smile vanished. He rushed to her side. "Hiromi," he called out to her, and grabbed her shoulders. He lifted her up a little, and saw as her head fell back lifelessly. She breathed heavily with a whistling noise.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" Yuu asked, shaking her a little. She didn't move. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and her lips were cracked with thirst. A dull moan rose from her trembling lips. Her bare legs looked white, and her face was deathly pale. He placed his hand under her neck, and curled his arm around her shoulders.

Hiromi's forehead felt icy against his throat. Her fingers shook a little. Her nails were blue as if she had been left in the cold all night. Yuu turned his head and looked around again… "That maid…" he growled, and moved his other arm under her legs. He hugged her against his chest, and stood up with Hiromi in his arms.

She felt small and light in his arms. Her head lolled against Yuu's warm neck, and her legs dangled like those of a flexible doll as he rushed up the stairs. A minute later, he walked through the open door. Her room was warm now, and the glass was fully fogged. He couldn't see anything outside. Slowly and with infinite gentleness, he laid her down on the bed and covered her with all the blankets on her bed.

Yuu leaned over her, and placed his sweaty palm on her forehead. It was cold as ice. His hand felt drained of warmth. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his mobile. He talked over the phone with the family doctor, watching as she winced and whimpered under the thick layers of blankets. With a rueful expression, he slumped down on the edge of the bed and looked up at the clock.

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The small flame on the candle flickered as a man passed by, threatening to go out. It cast large swaying shadows on the wall in front. The room was dark, covered with the blanket of night and darkness. The small sun-dial sitting next to the candle had taken it to be its sun. Its handle's shadow twitched and stretched out as the flame grew taller.

Green gaze bent on it, saw the time it told. It was supposedly around eight in the morning. Outside, it was pitch black. The small window with steel bars opened into the tight alleyway. A foul stench from the sewer lingered into the room that seemed no bigger than a prison cell. A small table stood lopsided at the corner with a chair pulled next to it. On it sat a feeble old man, clutching his wooden stick.

"Are you still upset, Tala?" he rasped, standing up slowly. His long robes looked dusty and old, crumpled heavily.

Tala peered into the darkness and frowned; he was not strong enough to blow away this palpable darkness. But Kai, he could see, hear, and smell everything. It angered him. "Upset?" he asked with a sharp accent. "Do you have any idea how big your blunder was, Elijah?" He whipped around, his features tightened dangerously.

The old man named Elijah, lowered his gaze. He looked confused and slightly ashamed. "You seem to have forgotten the time, and energy it took to summon those monsters," he defended with difficultly, squeezing the stick in his hands. "You were a part of that ritual too. There were no mistakes."

A look of disbelief came over Tala's face that quickly turned into a snarl. "Do you honestly think Kai would have been able to butcher, five, fully developed, Succubae?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "They didn't even scratch him…what's next? We might as well just throw some animated dolls at him."

"Maybe he is more powerful than we imagined," Elijah wondered, creasing his heavily lined forehead. "There seems to be no other explanation for it."

"I think you have lost your mind," Tala said curtly, leaning against the heavily cracked wall. "He cannot, and should not be anywhere near as powerful as Dranzer, the original white demon." He looked at the flame, dancing again as puffs of air came in through that window.

Elijah heaved a sigh. He looked burdened by his old age. "You gained a lot of powers with Almira's blood," he stopped as Tala narrowed his stern gaze on him, "she had his blood in her. And look how long you have lived… more than a thousand years, and nature has yet to touch you."

Tala relaxed his features. "What are you trying to say?" he asked in a subdued voice.

Elijah leaned over the stick, and stood with a deep droop to his back. "You look young," he admired with a hint of slight envy in his heavy, aged voice. "I have grown old, watching you. Do you honestly think, this Kai, is an ordinary demon? Even though you never drank the blood from a pure source, but … from a dead woman?" His eyes crinkled at the corner, deepening the lines set in his skin.

"Dranzer's firstborn then," Tala deduced, watching as the old man gave a nod. "There were only three, and I thought, the clan killed them long ago. How could he have survived?" His young face took on a puzzled look.

"Who knows," Elijah said, moving his drooping lids back. "These demons are a mystery. And one more thing…we can't keep opening and closing the rift that way. We have already sacrificed more than fifty prisoners for it, and for that summon. Choose your next step wisely."

A smile broke Tala's blank face. "I think it's about time I talked to his little whore again," he said, smiling. He turned his eyes and looked at the flame that fought desperately against the assault of steady draft before it went out, leaving them both standing in complete darkness.

**# # # # # # #**

Hiromi's senses had flown away. She didn't know where she was. Her head was hurting, and her vision was severely murky. Bits and pieces of sounds wafted to her ears, but she couldn't understand them fully. One voice was young, mellow, and richly smooth…it was her father's. She didn't know who the other man was.

"She should be…given her…shouldn't worry," said the other man in a hard, dry voice.

Her father said something politely, but the sound never fully made it to her ears. It passed off into silence before it hit her. A cacophony of shallow thumps sounded somewhere, and then, it was quiet again. Something was buzzing in her ears. Her forehead, her legs, and even her face felt as if it was being pricked with needles.

A dull ache coiled in Hiromi's joints, before it would burst into a painful stabbing sensation. Her throat was dry like an old wood, hurting and desperate for a few drops of water. She parted her lips when a slight creaking sound progressed to a shrill screech in her head. She tried to speak out, but only managed a tiny chocked whimper.

Hiromi felt smooth fingers brush away her damp strands. They were a bit cold on her burning forehead. Her body was hot under the weight of heavy blankets. She tossed her head a little, and tried to push them back. Then…the heaviness was lifted a little. Cool stagnant air in the room ghosted over her throat. It felt good.

"Sweet heart," whispered her father and pressed his lips on her forehead. She tried to open her trembling eyes, but couldn't. He looked hazy to her. When he pulled back an aroma of fresh, rain like earthiness filled her nostrils. She expanded them, trying to breathe in his scent that soothed her burning headache.

A cold cloth on her forehead and throat took away a bit of that building pain. It felt nice. She wanted more of it. It sopped up her heat, and got warm. Water slurped against something, and her face and throat were soothed again. This time, even her hands and belly. Little by little, sleep engulfed her, and she drifted off to the realm of dreams.

It was liked being engulfed under water. Her senses were caressed so soothingly. A faint sound floated to her, and in her mind, she saw Kai, beautiful and watery under the lake. His white hair floated around him as he swam forward, leaving tiny bubbles in his wake. She tried to call out to him…but no sound came out.

Hiromi opened her eyes, and looked around. Her vision swayed before getting slightly normal. Her father was sleeping in a chair. His head was resting on the chair's back. He looked a little tired. She turned her eyes around, and saw as the room's walls changed…bluish water splashed around, and filled the room until it was fully submerged.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and opened them again. She was lying in her bed, underwater. And he was coming, swimming slowly to her. His alluring smell took away the pain in her body and replaced it with need. Even if she as weak, she desired him. A rosy colour trickled in the water, and like fresh blood, it spread out as silk.

Kai floated through her window. His skin shone under the silver ripples overhead. Was this a dream? Her desire? The trick of her mind? It didn't matter. His hair flowed around his beautiful face. A smile disturbed his features like a small ripple. He looked at her, and stood silent for a moment before her name escaped his lips like a ghost leaving a body.

"It took its toll on you," he whispered, and nothing mattered. Her pain had vanished. Even if he claimed her now, robbed her of her life and left her dead, she wouldn't care. "Here, take some of my energy." He ghosted over to her and pressed his hand on her throat…and everything was lost behind nothingness.

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**AN:** I apologize for the late update. I was not feeling very well. This chapter is very important in terms of plot development, and hints. I hope you all paid attention.


	17. An Old Memory

**Chapter Sixteen:** An Old Memory

Rating **Warning**: Disturbing Imagery and Violence.

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When he pulled his arm, the heavy chain clanked in the empty space. The thick cuffs girt round his wrists were cold. They bit into his skin like a sharp knife. It was painful. His fingers trembled on the ground, trying to feel something, anything. But the ground was soggy, and the mud was churned by footsteps of the tribesmen.

He was alone. He could see nothing. A large dark cloth was tied around his eyes. When he moved his bare knees, he could feel the sparse grass underneath him. A heavy smell of incense circled around him. He moved his lips a little, and clenched the chain wedged between his jaws. A horse moan rumbled in his throat, and before he could suck it in, a dribble of saliva fell down from his mouth.

Water trickled down from the roof on his back, and leaked into his open wounds that were slowly beginning to close up. His white hair were rumpled, and flecked with his own blood. How many days had it been? Trapped in this darkness…he couldn't remember. Day and night, it didn't make any difference. It was always dark here.

A distant sound of birds' singing wafted to his ears. They pricked up, trying to snatch it from the wind that moved past him, silent and indifferent. The skin on his thighs rippled. He parted his thighs to change his posture. He had been sitting like this for months. His hair had grown long. So long that they lay around him like a large carpet, covering his nude body.

But he was calling it. And he could feel it, slowly and gently seeping through the walls to get to him. Only it could grant him his freedom. The freedom he longed to relish. The fresh air he so desired to breathe. All of that had just become a distant, sweet dream. He couldn't remember what dreams were like.

"I wonder if you ever dream," said a voice, standing a few feet away from him. He had not sensed her. His senses were starting to fail him. "Remove it." Sounds of feet squelching on the mud surrounded him, and then, the chain was pulled out of his mouth.

He closed his jaws suddenly, afraid that they might gag him again. The cloth was lifted from his eyes. A dim light leaking in through the cracks in the cave's roof lit the surrounds. He squinted his burning eyes; they were not used to this much light. He lifted his gaze up and stared at the woman looking down at him. She could not disguise her glee.

"What are your dreams like, Kai?" she asked, kneeling close to him. Her eyes travelled on his young face that did not age. He was still healing the scars she left on his face last night. "Tell me." She touched his cold cheek, moving his white hair back to look at his face.

"I don't dream," Kai responded, concealing the bitterness of defeat in his voice, "why do you want to know?" A faint smile ghosted over his dry lips.

"You are so beautiful," she whispered dreamily, and gestured a man behind him. He pulled the chain tied to the collar harshly.

"Ahhhhh," a loud moan slipped past Kai's lips when his neck was pulled back. The nails in the collar dug into his neck, and he bled. Thin streams of blood snaked down his collar bone, and dripped on his chest. His white skin was now left dotted with pure red. He breathed loudly, listening to his own sounds echo around him.

"Just a bit of you," the woman spoke, and leaned in. She pressed her rosy lips on Kai's neck and sucked his skin. She laid her tongue flat on the red drops and licked them up. It felt rejuvenating to her.

"I have to do this. You will not understand. These people think I am a saint, gifted with the elixir of life," she breathed out on his neck and kissed it. Laying feathery light kisses on his nape. She nuzzled his jaw, and skimmed her fingers on his face. "But they don't know… that it is you who is the elixir I have been drinking for the past eighty years."

Kai's head was tipped back. He saw everything upside down. The men standing next to the cave's mouth, the candles that melted in the cracks. He coughed, and closed his eyes when he felt her lips on his. She was teasing him again. "Sasha, I," he choked out, mustering up a bit of strength to say it again, "I…will, kill you."

Sasha laughed close to his face and lovingly played with his bangs. "How many times have you told me that?" she said, lapping up a few more drops of his precious blood. "If only you had given me your blood. I never would have done this to you. But you were so stubborn." She gave a small cut on his arm with a knife. Its tip was blue.

Kai hissed, feeling the poison course through his veins. He felt numb again. His organs tried to rid themselves of the poison that had already done its work. He was weak, unable to break the chains and flee. "This is basilisk's poison," Sasha explained. "It makes you weak, so I cannot harness the full power of your blood. But it is alright this way. As long as I get to keep you here, I am fine with it."

"You are making a mockery out of your own religion," Kai rasped, "am I not an untouchable? But you are all the same. You slept with me for so many years, yet you are a nun. How I loathe you humans." His face contorted with anger boiling under his skin for so many years.

A sharp knife landed on his back and he cried out in pain. The man standing behind pulled the whip back, dragging the large blue knife soaked in poison with it. He swung his arm, and whipped him again. The knife bounced off his back and slashed his face. Quickly, the demon in him healed it.

The wounds on his back were being torn open. Blood exploded out of his back and landed in the mud. A few dots flew in all directions and fell on Sasha's white gown. She looked down with disdain and stepped back. Her eyes shone with a sadistic gleam as he cried over and over again. Finally after hundred lashes she raised her hand.

The man holding the chain let it go, and Kai fell face first onto the ground. His breaths were shallow, and low. His skin was deathly white, covered with fresh blood. His tortured back bled profusely, gashed at so many places with deep cuts. He moved his hand on the ground to lift his head up, but gave up. He couldn't move.

Night after night…it was the same. He was whipped and left hanging on the threads of an odd feeling. A feeling he had never even felt before. He felt like he was dying. Every day he wished that they would not come. Only a spare night, that's all his body needed. But they were punctual. And this Sasha woman watched…every night, for the past hundred years.

Every ten years, she would drink a few drops of his blood. After she had had her fill, she would kiss and caress his wounded body. It was an odd mating ritual, and he hated it. Sometimes she would go all the way, and would make love to him. Kai never protested. He knew he couldn't. She wanted his child. Someone she would keep with her for all eternity. And what would she do to him then?

"I want your child," Sasha said in a cool voice, standing over him. "Why won't you give it to me?" The calmness on her face was touched by anxiety, anger. She was not holding it in this time.

"Why would I do that?" Kai said between pants, and lifted his body up to a sitting position. "You won't send anyone here then, and I will probably turn to dust."

"Why won't you stay with me?" Sasha begged, there was an odd urgency in her sugary sweet voice. "You will stay at my place. We will make love like we used to. And you can have my energy. Take it, as much as you want." She sat down and straddled him.

Kai flinched at her touch. "I feel humiliated by my own actions," he confessed, looking up at the moving shadows that lingered around them. "The small energy that I draw out of the air. It reeks of you and these men. If only I was strong enough not to be afraid of death. But…sometimes, the fruit of an endless wait… is so sweet, and poetic."

Sasha jerked her head up. Her eyes stretched out as he stretched his lips, and threw a sadistic smile at her. She coiled away from him, the clip holding her hair fell down. They fell out of her bun, and tumbled down on her shoulders in golden curls. The smile seemed to have frozen on his face. He looked lively, listening to the blackness creeping in through the walls.

"H-how did you?" Sasha said, her voice wavered with the fear of death.

"I have been calling to it ever since you trapped me here. Lo and behold…It has finally found me," he sounded amused. The strength in his voice made all of them panic.

It flaked off the walls and latched itself to those men. They screamed in agony as it ate through their bodies, and left empty shells behind. Sasha ran around the narrow cave, but the blackness was everywhere. It had swallowed the cave whole. She looked at Kai, and the alive darkness that wriggled and twisted, moving into his skin.

With a slight flick of his wrist, he broke the chains. He moved his hands up to his throat and snapped the collar in two. Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet and stood up. He took a step forward, and broke the fetters on his ankles. His unflinching stare was locked on Sasha. It was filled with years of hunger and loneliness.

He grabbed her by the throat, and stilled her. "I told you so many times, didn't I?" he squeezed, watching as the glimmer of life evaporated from her eyes. "That…I will kill you." He snapped her throat, and she went completely still.

Kai let her go, and looked around him as the blackness pooled into the room. He cast one last glance at Sasha's eyes that were left wide aghast with the pain of death, and waded through the cave. She got swallowed under the thick black liquid, lost. It would not eat her, as his blood was still in her veins.

The liquid poured in some more, and within few seconds, he was submerged in it from neck down. He dived in, and floundered out of the cave's mouth. He could see nothing, but he could smell the scents of life that was denied to him for so long. After several minutes of swimming, he threw his arms out and dragged his body out of the narrow tunnel.

Kai moved his nails on the grassy ground and pulled his body out. He turned his head, and looked back at the cave that was filled to the brim with darkness. He breathed in loudly, feeling his senses return to him. Fresh scent of flowers flowed around him. He loved it. He titled his head back and looked up. The mouth of the cave's tunnel opened up into a root of a large tree.

Its thick roots were protruding out of the ground, and fresh ones were clambering up the rocks nestled under its bark. Kai moved his eyes down and gathered his body up to sit straight. That's when a small child caught his attention. She was looking at him curiously. Her face was hidden behind a scarf lapped around her tiny neck. She was holding a large fruit basket in her small arms.

Kai rested his head against a large root, and spoke, "what are you doing here, little one? Go home," he said politely, and closed his eyes.

The tiny girl didn't move. She just kept staring at him. Her eyes were as big as saucers, and her small mouth was hanging open. She was fascinated by his appearance, and the long hair that covered most of his body. His skin was beginning to embrace life. She watched as the last bit of blackness disappeared on his skin.

She shuffled forward and sat close to him. She stretched out her hand and grabbed one long strand of white hair. Kai opened his eyes again. "I said, go home," he said, and watched as she twisted his hair around her tiny fingers. She lifted her tiny head, and the same expression of wonder came over her features.

She was such a beautiful little thing. Her light olive skin was smooth and supple. Her dark black hair was scrapped back into a braid. Her curly bangs hung around her face like wreaths of black silk. Her dark brown eyes still stared at his grey orbs. He couldn't help but feel a little fascinated by this tiny girl, only a few months older than her fourth year in this world.

"Are you lost?" he asked, leaning forward to take a good look at her.

She shook her head, and blushed. She looked like a tiny alive doll, playing with his hair with not a care in the world. She was just a babe. With great difficulty, she placed the basket close to him. He looked down at it and the lush apples and pears piled on top of each other. It looked too heavy for such a small child.

"Where are your parents? It is too dangerous for you to be alone in the forest," he said, getting no particular response out of her, other than that same look of pure awe.

When she said nothing, he figured she probably couldn't speak. "I need some clothes," he said to himself after a long interval of silence. She jumped up and ran off. Her tiny robes flowed around her ankles. She disappeared behind the thick bushes, leaving the basket by his side. "You forgot your … never mind." He closed his eyes, and listened to the sounds resonating through his body.

His skin was healing itself, and the wounds on his back were almost gone. He was about to drift to sleep when he smelled the same scent of that girl. She came running through the bushes, tripped over the large cloth in her hand, and then stood back up. She rubbed her forehead, and then walked into the natural cave.

She placed a pile of crumpled clothes by his side, and sat down to play with his hair again. "I never asked you to do this," he said, and lifted the wrinkled pants up in his hand. "I guess it can't be helped." He stood up, and slipped into them. They fitted him perfectly. Only god knows where she got them from.

He put on the thin robe lying on the ground, and stepped out with the girl right behind him. He walked for the trees beyond the bushes. His long hair trailed behind him, and so did that girl. "Stop following me, and go home. You are too young to be here," he said, and sat down beside her. She was still a good two heads shorter than him.

She grabbed a hank of his grey hair in her fist. "You want these?" Kai asked, and tore them off. "Here you go." He gave it to her, but she dropped them on the ground and looked sadly at him. She took a tiny step forward, and touched his face. Her tiny hands were soft on his still-healing face.

She rubbed her hands on his face, and pulled a few of his bangs out from under the heavy hood. Kai didn't know what to do. "What's your name, little one?" he said in a smooth voice that finally grabbed her full attention.

She looked up at him and stood quietly, before she opened her rosy little lips to speak, "Almira." She smiled, looking like a tiny lost angel that was heartily playing with a demon's hair.

# # # # # # #

Kai opened his eyes. He was lying on his back on the dead ground. A snake slithered across his bare chest. He sat up and looked around. He had fallen asleep again and had gotten lost in his past memories. The rain had stopped, and he could sense that Hiromi had fallen ill. He stood up and looked around. The scent was faint, but Tala had been here.

He had left small traces of his scent behind, and Kai had found that hidden trial. Tala was not in the forest, but out in the city. Just a few more days, and he would pay him a visit. And then, it will all be over soon.

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**AN:** This was an important memory in terms of plot. Expect more chapters on Tala in the future.


	18. Invisible Poison

**Chapter Seventeen:** Invisible Poison

Warning: Mild Sexual Content.

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Fear clutched at Hiromi's heart. That look on Jessica's face swam before her eyes over and over again. The calm, serene expression, pure allure hovering over her dead eyes. She looked as if she had tasted unbridled, raw passion. Whenever she closed her eyes, Jessica's countenance would become a tangible reality.

It scared her, and chased her dreams away. Sleep seemed to have become a distant reality. But what bothered her the most was Kai. It had been more than a week since she last saw him. Her room was always empty, and the place where he used to stand with his eyes forever gazing out into the distance felt so empty and forlorn.

Even if it was hard for her to admit it; Hiromi herself felt the bouts of longing. Nothing mattered to her, except for Kai and just a trickle of real lust that he always offered. Police came to her house for normal investigation. They had found Jessica's body, and soon news of a crazed murderer spread the campus like wild-fire.

To her surprise; it mattered little to her. Jessica, the killer, her death; her heart didn't seem to beat faster over the loss. Hiromi just wanted Jessica to leave her dreams, and let Kai seep into them like poison. Night and day she stood close to the window, feeling the draught of cold air sneak into her room.

Her very human eyes saw nothing but dark streaks of trees for miles on end. A thin swathe of clouds over the forest cast a large dark shadow; it twisted and wriggled as winds blew from the east. It reminded her of those things, and Kai. He murdered them with ease. All that horror lay trapped under his mesmerizing scent.

It permeated the air like a perfume, tickling her senses. Her senses glutted on it hungrily, and soon her whole body ached for his touch. Hiromi felt marked by him. The feeling only grew, until she thought her beating heart would stop suddenly. She would stop breathing if he didn't touch her, love her, taste her.

And on the eleventh night, when her body was on the verge of collapsing, she heard the familiar flutter of wings. Hiromi flexed her arms, clenching and unclenching her hands nervously. Sweat dripped from her body that just couldn't wait to taste the pleasures all over again. Even a slight moment felt like an eternity to her.

She blinked several times, holding her breath. Her eyes widened as the surreal man with that same beautiful countenance stepped into her room wearing a pleasant smile. Her eyes flit from his lips to his eyes, gleaming with that odd hidden emotion. His grayish hair seemed a little longer, but his face made that lust grow in her with a new intensity.

Hiromi waited for him to say something, and when several moments passed, she breathed out the air chocking her throat. "Where have you been?" she finally asked in a small voice.

Kai stared at her, standing close to the window with slightly lopsided shoulders. "What do you mean?" he asked with a curious face, holding his gaze.

"Where have you been for the past ten days?" she asked, looking at his odd expressions. It seemed as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

Kai's lips turned up into a small smile. "You never called me," he said honestly, looking at Hiromi's surprised face. "I felt you were a lot better, so I decided to pay you a visit. If you had called me earlier, I would have done so."

"Called you?" Hiromi repeated the same words, unable to understand what he meant. Was it as simple as calling out his name?

Kai narrowed his eyes a little. "Another thing you don't know about?" he said, staring up at the ceiling. "Regardless, if you ever fall ill again, simply put a few drops of your blood on the window pane. Then I'll know that you need me." He brought his clever gaze down on her.

Hiromi didn't say anything and sat on her bed. There was so much she didn't know about this mysterious man. Sometimes, it scared her. Was Jessica really killed by those things? "Did Tala kill Jessica?" she asked suddenly, unable to stop herself.

"Pardon?" Kai bent his attention on her, standing under the shadow of the room. The left side of his face glowed with an eerie white light.

"Why would Tala kill Jessica?" she said, and suddenly sprang up from the bed. "Did he kill her? Why would he do that?"

Kai remained silent, looking back at Hiromi's pleading eyes with an expressionless face. Then suddenly, as if he realized something, a wisp of a smile ghosted about his lips. Glee gleamed in his eyes, and he chuckled … but still, he remained quiet.

Hiromi's eyes widened at his heartless behaviour. "How can you be so heartless?" she said with utmost honesty, fighting back the tears burning her eyes. "Whatever business you have with Tala; it has nothing to do with us. Why don't you tell him that?"

Kai stifled his growing amusement, and parted his lips a little. "You are so naive," he whispered, and licked his lips. "Do you like to remain in the dark? They were only secondary summoners, and were obviously…"

"Only secondary summoners?" she cut him off, trembling with anger. "Human life doesn't seem to matter to you at all, but it does to me. Tala is your business. You deal with him and leave me and my friends out of this." She prodded in his ribs with her finger.

"Oh?" Kai said, creating a fake innocent look on his youthful, clever face. "I think it is about time I experienced some enjoyment too."

"You do that," came the quick reply from Hiromi, who sat down on the bed again. She clutched at her heart, steadying her erratic heartbeat. One part of her wanted to take a draught of lust, and the other did not want to see him. She felt torn.

Kai sat down at her feet. "You seem really angry today," he said in a husky voice, and gently parted her thighs.

Hiromi did not protest as he slowly leaned his head forward, and licked her core through her thin cotton underwear. She buried her hand in his grey hair, feeling lighter as he peeled the underwear away and touched her wet folds with his warm tongue. Feeling herself getting lost under the building pleasure, she closed her eyes and relished it.

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Kai left before morning, and Hiromi woke up alone in her room again. She was so used to seeing him every day that his daily absence was causing her slight sadness. After a ten day holiday from the university, she decided to get back to her studies again.

Her father protested, but she left anyway. The morning breeze was welcoming, and even when Hiromi trailed on the same path from that ill-fated night, she did not mull over the loss. Deep inside her head, she felt cruel. It was as if she didn't care; Kai's heavy scent was blocking out her reasoning. She knew … but did not want to break free.

The day passed smoothly. No one asked her about Jessica, but the Cafeteria was buzzing with theories and elaborate tales of Jessica's murder. Some went even as far as suggesting a supernatural demon was behind it all. After all, her body was found rotting away in a forest at night. She could not see the humour in all this.

Police had yet to release any detail about the murder, or condition of her body. It was better this way. No one came to her, and Maria and Salima were busy with their own study problems. Hiromi breathed a sigh of relief. She decided to slink off without getting into this tell-tale mess.

When Hiromi's last period ended, she gathered her things and rushed out, only to stop dead in her tracks. Her gaze sliding from the red hair to those sharp green eyes. It was Tala. "Leave me alone," she hissed, and tried to leave when his out-stretched hand stopped her.

"You are coming with me," Tala said with a hard face, knitting his brow.

Hiromi met his gaze boldly. "If I say no," she returned, clutching her books to her chest.

"Then my men will simply kill your parents," he said, smiling.

He turned around and started walking, with Hiromi quietly trailing behind him. He leisurely walked out of the grounds, and turned for the clearing right behind the main building. Hiromi followed him without a word. Her eyes skittered around in search for Kai, but he wasn't there. Where was he when she needed him?

He suddenly stopped and faced her. "Remove your blouse," he ordered, meeting her wide eyes.

"What? You can't be serious," Hiromi said, hugging herself.

"Don't flatter yourself. I have no interest in you," he said cruelly, creating a disgusted look on his face. "I need to write a spell around your heart and poison it."

Hiromi's heart hammered in her chest that felt fragile. "W-what? Poison?" she stuttered with fear. This man was going to kill her.

"Don't worry, this poison won't hurt you," he paused, showing her his blackened fingers, "and if you say yes, I won't hurt your family. It is a fair trade for a demon whore, don't you think?"

His words stung Hiromi's ego. Her body trembled with rage, but she pressed her lips together. It was her fault that she was so weak to resist Kai. She should have sent him back when she had the chance. Slowly she undid her blouse, and removed her bra. She stood topless under the cluster of leaves swaying over her.

Tala's eyes remained cold. He moved his hand forward, and pressed his fingers on her heart. With great skill, he drew perfect circles around her heart, and then some symbols she had never seen before. Slowly, the black ink seeped inside her skin and disappeared.

He drew in a heavy breath, his eyes twinkling cleverly. "It is done," he said, looking dazed. "All you have to do is ask him to sleep with you. This poison will leave your body and enter his. He should be dead within a few days." A wide smile ran across his sharp face.

"If it doesn't work?" Hiromi asked, picking up her blouse from the ground.

"This is basalisk's poison, mixed with his dead lover's blood," he explained, "it will most certainly end his life. He is no god."

"He seems like one to me," she said thoughtlessly, buttoning up. "Maybe you are underestimating him."

Tala squinted at her with contempt warping his face. "Or maybe you overestimate him. Or perhaps it is just that lust talking. A whore to the end, huh?" he said with a mocking smile, and turned to leave. "And one last thing. You are not going to send him anywhere. My men and I will come to pick up his body."

Hiromi watched him leave beyond the trees. Minutes passed, but she kept standing there alone, surrounded by a few trees. Kai had warned her about keeping secrets. If he found out, he would kill her. And if she told him, Tala would kill her parents. She didn't know what to do. A sob rose to her lips, and she sank to the ground…

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**AN:** I know the update is late, but life can be pretty demanding sometimes. This chapter was a bit short, but it had two very important details that will shape the entire events in final chapters.

I will include some very important details about Kai in the next chapter.


	19. A New Kill

**Chapter Eighteen:** A New Kill

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The big swirling cosmos spun round and round like a giant wind mill, pulling tiny stars with it. It looked as if a child's tiny pinwheel had taken such a huge form. The sky glittered, studded with so many stars on this dark cloudless night. Gentle breeze tore through those thin gray streaks so high up in the sky, leaving nothing but a clear view for green eyes.

"We shouldn't have returned," said an old voice from behind him. "People are already questioning your decisions."

Tala leaned back against the tree, and lifted his eyes skyward to catch a glimpse of the last dying spark of a shooting star. "Isn't that what they always do?" he said, bringing his gaze down on the giant spiral of stars. "No worries, it will be over soon, and we will all go back to our interesting lives."

"Sarcasm does not suit a leader," Elijah said, heaving a painfully long sigh. "I truly hope, for our sake that this scheme actually gets us somewhere this time."

Tala sat down, and plucked out a purple flower from the grassy ground. "You do not sound so enthusiastic," he said, looking over his shoulder.

Elijah stilled his trembling hands, moving his gaze on the green ground with the sluggishness of an old man. "This demon … he," he stopped, averting Tala's hard eyes boring into his soul, "he seems so different. The poison should have killed him the first time."

"If he is the first born, like you suggested, then of course he must be a lot more resilient," Tala suggested, unsure of his own words.

Elijah let out a dry laugh, squeezing his eyes shut. "It was just a guess. It is not like we have ever dealt with a first born before," he said, bending his gaze on Tala's tight features.

Tala threw the flower aside, keeping his eyes locked on the quivering lifeless petals. "Almira's blood will intensify the poison tenfold," he said resolutely. "It will work…it has to."

"Make sure we have a backup plan, before that girl does anything. And be prepared to leave for the light realm tomorrow," he said, and moved his feet sluggishly to walk for the houses several yards away. "These days, I just curse my luck. It is just a feeling, but, I think this demon is not what we think he is."

Tala lent his ears to Elijah's words, until they fell into silence, snuffed by the faint hiss of the wind. He got to his feet, running his eyes over the vast land beyond this small village. Yellow lights dotted the base of a mountain, and a gray plume rose up into the sky. It was there he first met Almira about a thousand years ago.

Turning his eyes, he spun around and left for his house, thinking about the uncertainty of the plan.

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Night had cast its shadows over the land, and on Hiromi's mind. It was left in a messy muddle. Secretly, she looked at tiny beads of her blood clinging onto the window pane, and then at the forest outside. The droplets wriggled and shook, rolling down the steel surface and creating a thin red line.

Her desultory thoughts could not think of anything; only thoughts of her family flooded in her mind. But what of Kai? Had she not called him here? She fisted her hair in confusion. If he died, his blood would be on her hands. She clenched her teeth, and stifled the burning sob. If Kai find out, he would kill her.

It was like hanging between the devil and the deep blue sea. Where Kai was the beautiful, sensuous devil and Tala, the swallowing monstrous sea. Hiromi jerked her head up, and lent her ears to the faint sounds of wings. It was Kai…he was coming to her. She panicked and jumped away from the window, and quickly slammed her back against the wall.

The flutter of Wings disappeared behind the faint sound of wind, and slowly Kai climbed into her room. His wings pulled themselves back under his skin. He closed his eyes, and took in a large intake of breath. His nostrils flared, and he turned his head at Hiromi. There was only silence between them.

His calculating eyes turned red behind the gray bangs, and after several moments of just observing her, he spoke, "you called?"

Hiromi swallowed hard, feeling her throat burn with the closeness of death. "I," she stopped, studying his expressionless face, "I just…I wanted you to…you know." She dropped her gaze suddenly, her face turning red.

"I know a lot of things," Kai sighed out, sounding annoyed, "but I am afraid you will have to tell me what I know, because I don't know what 'you know' means."

Hiromi lifted her eyes and found her voice again. "I want you to make love to me," she reeled out quickly, and puckered up her eyebrows.

Kai stepped into the light of the moon; his face looked ghastly and hard. He narrowed his eyes to tiny pin-pricks of red and sniffed her. Hiromi jumped up, horrified that he could smell something which was not even on her skin.

"What are you doing?" she said, putting her hands up in defense. Her eyes locked on Kai's, filled with an eerie hunger that made a mortal shiver scurry up her spine. He knew…

Amusement flickered across his face. "What are you hiding under that skirt?" he asked, towering over her. His lips twitched and a haughty smile graced his face. Long nails speared up from his hands.

Hiromi swallowed hard, her eyes widening at the sharp shining edges of his nails. They looked harder than they usually did. Moon light glanced on their hard surface, making them shine like pure diamonds. She pressed her back against the wall again, hoping that it would somehow swallow her.

Kai's hand moved so quickly under Hiromi's skirt, that her mouth remained open in a silent scream. The world froze around her, but she did not feel any pain. Slowly, as if against their own will her eyes found his. "Don't move," he said in a voice that had a strange mellow lilt to it.

She couldn't move. His voice and the fear for her life bound her in place. Her whole body was tethered to the ground by force. Hiromi felt his nail move up her entrance, and then she felt something wriggle. It was an odd sensation similar to her menstruations.

The thick liquid travelled through her walls, she tensed a little, but before she could close up her entrance against the assault, Kai pulled it out completely. Black goo wriggled on his nail. Kai turned his finger around and looked at it curiously. "This is what he left inside your body?" he said to himself, smiling.

Hiromi's smile was lost and so was the colour in her cheeks. Her whole face was deathly pale as she waited for his final inevitable judgment. She remained quiet, glancing at the goo that looked alive, and Kai's pleasant face. She watched, her features twisting in surprise as Kai titled his head and rolled his tongue around the goo…and ate it.

"Don't," Hiromi said suddenly with an out-stretched hand. Her words fell on deaf ears. Kai swallowed it and closed his eyes.

Hiromi took a step forward, focusing her vision on tiny veins blackening with poison on his face and neck. The colour of his skin drained, and he lost the youthful rosiness in his cheeks. A single line appeared on his forehead. He squeezed his eyes in concentration and the blackness disappeared.

Kai's skin took on the natural pale glow. Blood pumped in his face, flowing through the tiny veins in his lips and they turned rosy again. He looked normal, beautiful, just like he always did. Hiromi was speechless. Her eyes frantically searched for any signs of poison on his skin, but there was nothing.

He had bested Tala's little potion of death. Tala said he wasn't a god, but Kai betrayed all forms of logic, all reason, and even her assumptions. He really was an enigma. "How?" she whispered, still under the force of that surreal scene.

Kai titled his head, looking incredulous. "You didn't think I would survive this half-heartedly cooked up cuisine?" he whispered, looking quite healthy.

When she couldn't think of anything to say, she thought of saying no but stopped herself at the thoughtful look on his face. "I thought you were going to die," she whispered, avoiding his red eyes that seared her skin.

"Ah," he said aloud, cupping his chin in his hand and creating a scholarly expression that did nothing but mock her. "So you were in on this?"

His question left her without wind. Quickly, her eyes skittered to the far end of the room. "I think it is best to come out clean," she said in a forced voice laced with fear. "Tala forced this on me. He said he'll kill my parents, if I didn't call you." Her whole body shivered, feeling the convulsions of an unknown fate that hung so close. He could kill her now if he wanted to.

"And what if I killed you now?" he said in a strangely calm voice, looking at his sharp nails. "Would Tala help you then?"

Hiromi calmed her hammering heart. It too felt the bouts of fear. But if he wanted to kill her, he would have done it by now. This thought gave her just a little strength to speak. "I suppose you can," she said boldly, surprised at the sound of her even voice. "But I told you; there is nothing I could have done. I was helpless."

Kai pondered on her words for a few fleeting moments, stepping back. Hiromi breathed in freely, sensing the danger recede back to whence it came. The room's tall shadow swallowed his form, but his eyes glowed through the darkness, watching her as if she was a pray and he the hunter.

"You were not helpless," he finally spoke from behind the blanket of darkness. "You could have told me. Did it never occur to you, that Tala could have killed you by now, if he wanted to? Why hasn't he then?"

His odd question left her mind in complete disarray. Searchingly, she peered into the darkness hoping to find his face but she couldn't see anything. "I don't know," she sighed out, defeated. There was nothing she knew about Tala, and even less about Kai.

"How silly you humans really are," he said in a deep, old voice as if talking to himself. "He didn't kill you, because doing so, he would leave a little scent of himself on you. And he knows I am looking for him. It is only a matter of time." He bared his teeth, and grinned. His countenance glowed eerily as the moon light shone through her window.

The white light dropped sharply on the slippery eaves and struck the room, taking away her blindness. "I'll try to remember that next time," she said in a small voice, putting her sweaty hands on her chest.

"Next time?" he said, and laughed. "I am afraid there won't be a next time. Do this one more time behind my back, and I…"

Hiromi's eyes stretched, her brown orbs dilated, and her coming breaths stopped in her throat. "I will kill you," he hissed, dropping his voice so low that only they could hear it. His voice was honest and threatening. He really meant what he said. "If you try to send me back, I will just tear through the veil and pay you a visit."

"This," Hiromi choked out, sensing fear take hold of her body, "this isn't funny. Stop playing games with me. Tala has nothing to do with me, or my family. And why can't I send you back, because I swear to god, I really want to."

"I am not playing games with you," Kai said, sounding resolute. His expressions were hard, his handsome face devoid of its usual playfulness. "Do you expect me to be polite, after you just tried to kill me? You should be thankful you are still breathing over a shadow of my doubt that you are…just a supremely idiotic girl and nothing more."

"Why don't you mock my intelligence first, before you threaten me," Hiromi returned, seething with rage and vulnerability. "But where does all this clever thinking of yours go to? Why is Tala so ahead of you? What is this, his second attempt? I bet third one will be full and final."

Kai's lips quivered and he burst out laughing. His loud laugh bounced off the walls and echoed in her room. Thank god her parents were not home, or else her dad would have paid her room a visit by now. He stopped and sniffed, looking quite satisfied with himself. "Have I managed to rile you, silly girl?" he asked with amusement.

"Why would you do such a horrible thing?" she said with a sarcastic edge to her voice, breathing loudly.

"Don't worry," He walked for her, and stood close. "You are safe, as long as you listen and do as I say. And stop these killing attempts." Kai put his finger on her lips, and hushed her. He leaned in and pressed his lips on hers. His scent crawled up her nose, and all that anger melted away.

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Frozen fingers caked with blood, looked gray under the moon. The walls sprayed with red, gave off the stench of death. A woman stood shocked at the door way. Her eyes drinking in the image before her. Her mind in complete denial, before reality prodded it and her mouth opened with a loud scream. Her daughter was dead.

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**AN:** I think almost all my readers have left me. It is truly a shame. A little response from the past reviewers would prove to be greatly helpful. Next chapter will pick up after this incident.


	20. Slow Transformation

**Chapter Nineteen**: Slow Transformation

**Important Notice:** I am picking this story back up again. You'll see an update soon.

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Tendrils of incense swirled around the forlorn faces of mourners circling the family monument. Water slapped in the offering bowl; the wind was not kind today. Hiromi's black Kimono flowed around her ankles. Thin tears lined her cheeks and wind lashed them pink. Her face remained untouched by the storm of emotions burning inside her.

Salima was dead. Hiromi gulped down the dry lump in her throat. Tears burnt her eyes with a new intensity. They slid out unhindered, wetting the dry corners of her slightly quivering lips. She parted them, feeling a burdened sigh slip past their tips. She felt her father clamp his hand on her shoulder, but didn't turn her head to look his way.

Salima's smiling lips, her lust filled eyes, and the pure ecstasy snaring her delicate features. They were frozen in place, touched by a few drops of pure funeral water on her parched lips. The images of her face, and the gaping hole in her once-full chest kept flowing into her mind like the raging ocean waves, dashing themselves senselessly on the rocks.

Even when her body was lowered amid the dancing flames, nothing changed. Her delicate skin sagged like a gooey pie. Her features melted, and her once dark brown hair shriveled and crackled like used paper. The crematorium's lid was shut and behind it, Salima slowly turned to timeless black ashes.

Salima's body was burnt hours ago, but that profound feeling of denial and loss left a heavy dash of fear in its wake. Hiromi was left under the crushing weight of loss. It was tearing at her soul, her wall of reason. She talked with her only a few days ago. How could this have happened? Who killed her?

She screamed at herself in the emptiness of her mind, but nothing came to her. Overhead, the Sakura tree's leaves' cried under the assault of wind. Salima's mother lowered the urn in the chamber, and then…it was shut, cradling her last remains till the end of times.

There was only stillness. Nothing moaned from beyond the veil of life to whisper things to her. To tell her that two of her best friend's met gruesome deaths, and now lay under the soft earth as ashes. It felt strange, standing alive under the drape of grey sky among the living, staring at the living memories of the dead.

Leaves churned by the stiff feet, pushed forward by puffs of cold air. Hiromi's empty eyes followed them without a single thought. They scattered out in the open space, and her eyes found the sagged faces of several people standing across her. Among them stood Maria. Her tiny shoulders were drooped, and her head hung in sadness.

Hiromi turned her eyes away…two of them were dead. But why? Who would kill them? Her mind chased and chased these questions…and only Tala's face came to mind. He hated the summoners. Whatever happened between him and Kai was the source of this hate. And now…she was caught in the middle of it…like a helpless animal…no, like a defeated prey.

The incumbent terror was hanging in air, right above her head like a reddened guillotine. Time was flowing away slowly and whether she wanted to accept it or not, they died in the same sitting order. Cool beads of sweat broke out on her face. Wind stabbed her skin, and it trembled as if feeling the slow spread of death's fingers.

A mortal shiver convulsed her whole being. Her heart felt tremors of the cruel zest of mortal death. Never had she felt it before; the flicker of death's wings. Her ears could actually hear it flap and beat the air beneath them. Fear chocked up Hiromi's throat, trapping the breaths desperately trying to get out.

_Is it Maria's turn now? No, it can't be…then…it'll me my turn?_ she thought madly, holding her regard as she looked upon Maria's face. Whispers rose into the air…the funeral was over. Their sounds broke her wild thoughts. She shook her head slightly and looked up at her father. His face was forever calm, serene…unaffected by the force of the cemetery's looming dread.

"Come on, let me take you home," Yuu said in a gentle voice, curling his arm around her small shoulder.

Hiromi dropped her gaze to the soggy grass and walked with him out of this playground of sleeping-dead. She didn't feel like she belonged there. Not yet anyway.

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Hiromi rode home quietly; the burden of her life on her shoulders was already beginning to wear her out. Her lips were sealed…locked like a heavy metal padlock missing its rusty key. Her father made sure she was clam enough to be left alone. She kept up a semblance of false calm, and he left for Salima's home again…it was customary after all.

Even if Hiromi was all alone in her house, the feel of safety from the cruel reaches of cemetery was comforting, relaxing even. It was as if she had slipped past her fates and ran free. Her lips quivered and a small smile disturbed her tight features. She curled her arms around herself, sensing comfort from within the walls of her great-grandparents aging home. Even its earthy, rustic smell imbued a sense of lively joy within her.

She sat down next to the fire place, and hugged her legs close. Putting her head on her pointy knees, she sang a song. Her voice rang loudly in the empty house, bouncing off the walls like a dull echo. Suddenly, her head snapped up. A powerful scent forced itself into her nostrils. She sucked it in, letting it burn her insides.

Her body burnt willingly like a martyr's shell in the painful fire of lust. Languidly, Hiromi pulled herself up to her feet. Every thought lost itself to this foreign, exhilarating fragrance. It was so powerful, dropping down on her in a heavy cascade. All she wanted to do was to follow it like a mad dervish in search of eternal truth. Her feet slapped on the wood and she followed, thirsty for a little swig of that brilliantly luscious forbidden fruit.

Hiromi's feet scrabbled on the floor and hurriedly she clambered up the stairs, swaying from side to side, fully intoxicated by the strange heavenly alcohol. Her room's thick wooden door appeared watery before her dazed eyes. She stretched out her hand to reach the door, but fell on the floor. The handle was a foot away.

Quickly she got up, clutching the handle. She turned it several times. The door swung open, and her breaths exploded out of her. Her body felt as if it was being crushed under the heavy air redolent with palpable allure, spilling freely from Kai's body. He was kneeling on the floor. His shoulders hunched, and his head bowed with his nose touching the floor.

His grey hair was growing right before her eyes, pooling around him like a magnificent, thready garland. A fitting adornment for his impeccable form. Tiny bones poked out from the back of his shoulders. He bent forward with a painful grunt, his nails scraping her floor. Kai's backbone wriggled under his skin and began to tear out of his flesh.

It ripped open the hem of his pants and grew out as a small tail. It whisked on the floor behind him as if it was alive. Two tiny, pointed black bones speared out of his back. Red dots dappled his white skin. And then…nothing happened. Hiromi stared down at him, torn between feelings of intense lust and wonder.

Kai heaved a long sigh, stilling his shivering body. He waited for a fleeting moment to catch his wind again, and lifted his head. Two thin red lines were travelling down his sharp cheek-bones. He was crying tears of blood. The red drops soaked through the parched lair of his lips and he licked at them, looking at her with the same mocking expression like he usually did.

"I have no tears," Kai said almost seductively with a lilt in his mellow voice, "that's why you see the blood. Surprised? Aren't you always?" He got to his feet, brushing away many long strands of grey from his shoulders. They hung down behind him as a long grey drape, kissing his pointy feet.

Hiromi pressed her hand to her chest to feel her heart thudding desperately inside her. Her wetness was leaking past her inner thighs, and she felt ashamed when he dropped his grey eyes slightly as if to peer through her clothing. He leered, trying to meet her elusive brown eyes.

"Hiromi… Hiromi," he said, inching closer to her. "You are so naughty. Your friend just died, and you are in such a lusty mood?" His warm breath felt so delicious on her skin.

"That's not…I…," she broke off, meeting his eyes. "How did you know my friend died?" A residue of morning funeral's fear flashed across her face.

"Because I can smell a corpse on you. Salima, was it?" He said, turning around to sit on the bed. "That's alright, you will forget regardless no matter how many times I keep beating things into your head about my…obvious advantages as a demon." Kai lapped up the last drop of his blood from his long nail. He plonked on her comfy bed, wearing an expression that suggested something between a playful invitation and childish dare.

And strangely enough, she chose both.

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	21. Trail Unearthed

**Chapter Twenty:** Trail Unearthed

Rating **Warning:** Sexual Content.

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"You should deal with Tala," Hiromi said after a long moment of silence. "I have nothing to do with any quarrels between you two." She raised her gaze to look at Kai stuck to the wall right next to the window. This odd favourite place of his was starting to annoy the hell out of her.

"Now you are suddenly in a position to pass orders at me?" He turned sluggishly to meet her brown eyes, his expression guarded and controlled.

"Am I not your summoner? You sure as hell treat me like dirt," she retorted, holding her intense gaze. "You are always making fun of me. It's one thing I ask, and suddenly I am giving you an order?"

Kai slackened his jaws. "Sometimes you really…irritate me," he said lowly, looking down at her with a hard, mocking expression. "The only business I have with you is physical intimacy… nothing more, nothing less. You want something from me? Ask without crossing this boundary. But you cannot and will not treat me as if I am your pet hound. Are we clear?" His eyes flashed red, their malice bearing heavily down on her.

Hiromi gulped down the dry lump in her throat and breathed again. Her heart thudded inside her chest. This new transformation of his had made him more aggressive. But she always found herself succumbing to this new intensified lust he yielded. She had become far more intimate with him than she hoped.

Only a few days ago she buried her dear friend…she felt ashamed of herself asking Kai to sleep with her every night, lulling her parents to sleep. And when they were not around, she would sneak into her room and ask Kai to pleasure her again. Sometimes, she couldn't even give voice to her feelings…but Kai would unfurl her locked desires.

"You have become very mean," Hiromi said, her voice trailing off. Her ears wiggled at the sound of his boyish laugh. But she didn't look at him.

"You want me to be nice to you again?" he whispered warmly, drawing near.

"No," Hiromi protested feebly, closing her thighs when he sat down by her feet. "I just don't want to die at Tala's hands."

"You will not," Kai answered with a smile on his face. "I have guaranteed you that, haven't I?" He brushed his fingers on her knees and pushed her skirt up.

"You are a liar. Two of my friends are dead because of your fight," She broke off, flushed in the face.

Kai nuzzled her inner thighs and pushed the silky fabric of her underwear aside to give a playful lick on her lips. "I sincerely doubt that," he leaned up to press a warm kiss on her lips and gently pulled her underwear down to ankles.

Hiromi pulled her right foot out of the underwear and just left it hanging around her right ankle. It dangled back and forth as he pulled her up on the bed and nestled himself between her thighs glazed with her wetness. A flush of lust rose to her skin and she loved the feeling of Kai's lips on her breasts, flat stomach, and her womanhood.

Then he laid his hardness against her inner thigh… and it was all pleasure again. How could Hiromi hate him? Her hands roamed on his slick back covered with a film of sweat and her senses bathed in his luscious scent. It was almost a thrill to taste him like this over and over again.

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Night came chasing the reddish hue in the sky. Soon it was deep dusk, broken and lightened by the half full moon bearing up like a sailing boat on a dark ocean in the sky. Kai landed on the grassy ground covered by a carpet of leaves next to the lake. His wings retreated obediently into his back.

He gazed up at the sky letting the scent of his pray unravel the path before him. He could almost see the treads left by the man he wanted to kill. It wound through the trees well beyond the lake somehow, lingering like a woman's kiss.

Kai pursued the mirage of his murderer, hacking the branches with his claws. It was so easy to see it now. Tala had left just a dash of his foul stench on those Succubae, and with his new form he sifted through those muddle of scents like an artful perfume maker.

He stopped right at the edge of the lake and dropped his gaze to look down at the slack tides languidly moving to and fro by his feet. Beyond the lake he had gone, well beyond…into the city and under the tall tower's terrace's snug and deep at the back of the alley…there he was. A myriad of odd sounds struck his ears. He could hear them all, each breath, each mortal word.

A predatory smile crept on his young lips. With a desperate dash on the water's surface and a rush of his wings, he took flight. As he passed through the still trees, a startled colony of sleeping birds flushed from among the leaves and spread out in every directing.

Wind drove flurries of light drizzle in Kai's face as he clove through the drape of clouds. He flew so high above the city. Everything looked small, glittery at this hour of the night. More than half the town was blissfully asleep, ignorant of the coming death of few who felt safe behind the barrier set up by Tala for their protection.

It thrilled Kai how their small, uneventful lives would culminate in a clichéd mortal death at his hands. He hastily flapped his wings, feeling flushed with a victory of a long struggle only less than a mile away. It was a beautiful feeling that made his heart race like a shy lover.

Kai pushed his wings back and stalled, dropping down more than two thousand feet straight on the side of the empty road. His legs sunk in several feet, breaking the concrete and gravel under the road's crust. The fall didn't even bend his knees. He pulled his feet out of the deep rut he created and peered at the back of the dark alley.

Tala's smell was strong here. Murmurs of his fellow men escaped a small window still open for fresh air. But Tala was not there. Either he had sensed his arrival or he never returned from his failed foray into Kai's territory. It didn't matter to him nor did he care. A few less men would do him good, and would flush the fool out right to his claws. He was dearly hoping for that.

He pushed his wings back in again, pulling a mocking expression at the glowing protection glyphs only his eye could see. They were etched into the wall and the whole ally was bathed in a flowing red light. It looked like a small, gurgling cascade.

Kai shrugged his shoulders and stepped right into the barrier. It slightly tickled his skin. A lesser demon might have succumbed to its force, but he would damn himself to hell if those mortal pests injured his pride any longer.

The alley turned sharply in and the sounds only grew louder. He paused in his steps right before the door and gave a polite push. It was barred and heavily fortified with the mightiest holy magic. He clasped the handle and pulled the door out of its hinges. A few bricks fell to the side as the last nail got pulled out of the wall.

Kai threw it aside. It clanked against the wall and fell down on the wet alley's floor, still drenched with the water from the air conditioners overhead. The sounds stopped. Ten men were completely still, their wide eyes on Kai and his hair changing colour underneath the red shower of magic.

"You… how did you…" said the feeble old man, clasping his stick tightly to his heaving chest. His skin was slack and saggy from old age. His drooping eyes could only try and focus on the youthful demon standing on their doorstep.

"I decided to see the army myself," Kai said in a calm voice laced with mockery, sweeping his gaze around the dimly lit room and over the ghastly expressions on the faces of other men. "I am quite disappointed in you, Elijah. You sure take up the most lost of causes for your own concern. Where is your half-mortal protector? Left you for the guillotine, didn't he?"

"You saw an opportunity and came here," Elijah said and stifled his coughs, "Tala is not here."

"Opportunity?" Kai chuckled. "I just wanted to relieve myself of boredom. You just … overestimate yourself. Were those walls of barriers erected for pixies? You know better, don't you Elijah?" He widened his eyes glinting with the everlasting superiority of invincibility.

Elijah pressed his back against the wall as Kai walked right through the final barrier unhindered. He was still not ready to meet his maker. Kai swiped his arm and slit the throats of four men standing next to the old men. The remaining died so quickly that Elijah's old eyes didn't even notice the blood gush of their throats until they thudded to the ground.

Their faces were frozen in an expression of surprise. Death came so quickly that they couldn't even taste it properly. Elijah's failing eyes couldn't accept the death that had just consumed all of his men in the room except him. He turned his eyes towards the demon, eternally beautiful and forever young, and opened his lips. "Who … are you?"

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	22. Elijah

Chapter **Twenty One**: Elijah

Rating **Warning**: Sexual Content.

**AN**: The Chapter has been renamed and updated. Skip the parts from the previous chapter - Trapped Again - and read ahead. These were supposed to be two separate chapters, but I combined them into one.

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It was a frosty morning. Sun had just risen above the horizon, looking slightly yellow amid the whirling grey sky. A huddle of wee houses flanked the small town's square, mantled by swirls of morning mist. Few people were pushing their food carts towards the wooden shacks. Soon, this part of town would bustle with townsfolk.

Kai threw back his hood, revealing a thick black plait. He had coated a single strand with coal to muffle his inhuman grey hair. Sometimes, he needed the company of men or just few supplies to live among gypsies that took in stray wanderers without asking about their clans. He felt content living with them till someone called him to the other side.

If things became too difficult here, he always fled to other realms at will. These were just perks of being a seed of demonic spirituality. He was too free, too unrestrained to fit in with the rules of temporal mortality. Even if he bore the curse of deathlessness, it was far too sweet and unbridled to lament over his would-be humanity. No, these were just musings of weak men; he was above them by right and by birth.

The only child of blackness; he never wanted to be rescued. It were fates that crafted his destiny and he would lay waste to them if they dared erase him. Those strings were meant for mortal men whose hearts fluttered with age and death claimed them sooner or later…whether they willed it or not.

He had tasted the fleeting toxins of death in ecstasy over and over again, many times, that now it felt like a cheap spice in a meagre supper house wives arranged for their husbands. Transformations were a part of his deaths. He died in one form and evolved in another; undying, unrelenting, unfading.

Kai looked up, putting his hand on his forehead to gaze skyward at the new sun. How many mornings had he seen? He brought his gaze back to the town, turning his grey eyes at the wilting roses and an old man setting up shop next to them. How many seasons passed before him and how many people perished, lost to age and human time? He … despite himself could not even remember.

He smiled to himself, feeling a flush of hubris. It was unintentional but it came naturally with his youthful form that did not seem to bend to the cruel wills of time. Kai smoothed down the plaits on his shirt absentmindedly, as if he was doing the gesture just to look normal. He walked through the wide street churned to mud by countless ruts of carriages and feet.

His thick boots sloshed mud out of the cracks onto the rough road. Recent lashes of heavy rains ruined the once slick road. Now it looked old, worn thin and eroded under winter's harshness. He had been here last year and the difference seemed quite profound. Perhaps it was because of the spike in taxes. The landlord was becoming greedy again; it seemed to snare him sporadically.

It was because of the onslaught of neighboring countries that this trade centre was suffering. It was a part of a free country, open to refugees from all the nations. They donated a hefty amount of money to keep a way open for settling disputes, if situation called for it. Otherwise, they would just fight and kill till both sides could bear no more. They always … amused him.

Kai stopped in front of a small shop and picked up a brass earring. It was pure. He could tell. He smiled without emotion, keeping the muscles of his face almost relaxed. The smile had neither radiance nor joy; it just broke on his face with curiosity. He tiled his head to one side, then to the other. The shop keeper was feeling uneasy, even if he secretly admired Kai's charms.

He took out a silver coin people used as money here and paid the jeweler, who made a scoop of his hands and took the penny in his right fist. Kai didn't stay to strike up a conversation. He never felt it was necessary. He thrust the earring in a small leather bag girt about his waist and looked for the local inn.

Kai had been walking for over a week across the vast moors that stretched from this country till the mountains up north as far as the eye could see. Without a drop of water and food. He didn't feel weak, but a little rest would do him good. He wanted to rest up before he set off towards the unholy lands about a month's journey away.

He could fly, but without consuming energy such a long sojourn would surely weaken him. It had been decades since he leeched on the essence of another woman. His powerful demonic coat had withered away and now he was growing accustomed to a less powerful form, vulnerable to Basilisk's poisons.

It would take a big slosh of a young woman's blood and spirit to renew his form. The village looked like a decent place to replenish some of his energy, at least it would be enough to take him beyond the mountains and into the cradle of darkness; his mother. Once he reclaims his form, he will not need to drink again for a few centuries.

Kai swept his gaze across the town and then stopped it on the small inn sheltered by the thick tree. Wines hung down from its boughs and swayed lightly like long hair of an aging woman. Most of its leaves were gone; a few were getting churned steadily ahead by the wind. Dozens of its thick roots were poking out of the muddy ground.

He had seen this tree about five hundred years ago, right here, but much smaller. It was just a small sapling then. Now it served as a source of hanging demon-repelling talisman on its barks and naked branches. They tinkled as they fell to the bark and exuded a powerful aura, enough to keep most demons at bay.

He stepped inside the inn and looked at the fire burning and emitting a strong radiance. The room glowed with a red light. A young woman was drawing curtains and letting in the first light of morning. In the corner an old man puffed on something he didn't recognize. He couldn't smell or sense anyone else. The inn was empty.

The young woman looked over her shoulder and quickly turned her head away to hide a warm blush rising to her cheeks. She took in a large intake of breath and clumsily wiped her hands on her long gown. "C-can I help…you?" she spluttered, twisting a dirtied cloth between her fingers.

"I need a room to stay here for three nights and a few supplies for the journey ahead," he said, turning his gaze slightly to try and look at the woman who had just entered the inn. For a moment, he could almost swear to himself there was something familiar about her.

"What supplies do you need?" the old man rasped from across the room. He had stopped smoking and was keenly looking at Kai.

"Just some bread and pure well water for a week's journey, nothing else," Kai said, putting his hand on the wooden counter. It was empty save for few haphazardly arranged leafs and a quill dipped inside a bottle of black ink. Right next to it, a candle stood slating over the cooled melted wax.

Kai slipped his fingers across the surface, feelings cracks inside the old veneer on his fingers. He raised his eyes and smiled with a guarded seduction at the young woman. Her cheeks burned scarlet. She would do just fine to regain a bit of his strength. She was young, around her mid-twenties he assumed, and was healthy enough to bear the burden. Even if she fell ill, she would bounce back in a few days.

"Give him the keys, Sara," the old man said, still sitting at the same spot. The other woman approached him and held out a rusty key. She was around the same age, but somehow more healthy and alive. He couldn't quite understand, but she exuded a powerful aroma of life. A lust filled emotion flashed across her face. She seemed more interested in physical pleasures than her sibling.

The old man provided a lot of services to his male customers, it seemed. She was probably a prostitute. He didn't care. As long as she made his wings sprout, he would use her to suck out her life-force to heal his own. She would not feel a thing; he always lulled them to sleep. They blissfully slept and felt nothing but pleasures.

He took the key and paid her with a thick gold coin. It covered all the expenses of his stay, his supplies, and her services. The old man's mouth quivered into a smile. "Marla will take you to your room," he said and poked his chin forward to turn his gaze, "make sure our guest remains comfortable." He dipped his head and then fell silent again.

Marla gestured Kai who followed her up the sloping stairs. The stairs creaked and moss protruded out of the breaks in the wooden wall. This must have been hardly noticeable to anyone else, but Kai felt disgusted. If it wasn't for his desperation, he would have stayed elsewhere. But the cruel quirks of misfortune had other plans for him.

Marla rammed the key inside the wide keyhole and turned it. The hinges screeched as she swung the sturdy door open. The room looked a lot pleasant than the inn. A large mirror faced the huge bed at a slant. Thin white cloth hung down from the tall bedposts. A red rug draped the middle of the floor and right at the corner fire crackled inside the stony fire place.

Kai stepped in, feeling his cheeks burn pleasantly from the warmth that permeated the room. He walked to the window and moved the curtains slightly to look down at the squalor of this town. War and dearth of money had taken its toll on it. These women probably lost their husbands to war and had no other ways of feeding themselves.

"Can I get you breakfast?" Marla asked, putting her hands close to her chest. The blush had not drained from her cheeks.

Kai looked over his shoulder. "Bring anything that's edible and isn't below the payments I made," he said with a smile in his voice. Marla left and closed the door behind her.

Kai sat down on the bed and looked at his own reflection. He always looked the same. He stood up and shrugged off his hood. He unlaced the small bag hanging from his belt and threw it on the bed. He stood close to the mirror and took in the youthful visage that stared back. A few black smudges blotted out the reflection but they didn't blemish his allure.

He turned his back towards the mirror and screwed his head to look back into it. He bunched his leather shirt in his fists and pulled it up. The black veins were still there. It had been nearly a decade since he freed himself from Sasha's prison, but his body had not purged the poison out of his system.

Kai twisted his arm and touched one webby vein. It throbbed under his touch. He had to take these women during these nights or he would be weak against any attack from those religious factions relentlessly pursuing him. The door opened and Marla stood still, entranced by the black veins tattooed into his back.

Kai turned his eyes at her reflection and smoothed down his shirt. "Put it here on the bed," he told her turning around to face her. Marla steadily stepped inside and place the tray heaped with meat, bread, and wine on the bed.

"Is there anything else you need?" she asked, standing upright.

"I would need the supplies by the end of this day." He bent down to take a whiff of the fresh goat's meat roasted with local spices to succulence. "And it would be very nice if you and Sara offered your services for the night," he said in a mellow voice, watching Marla's cheeks sear with embarrassment.

Marla gave a quick nod and rushed out of the room. It was not that hard to reap the benefits of human conflicts. He smiled to himself and swilled down the red wine.

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The winter nights were long and chilly. Outside, the whole town was lying half asleep under the heavy drape of mist. Lamp lights from houses lining the slope out of town flickered and winked mischievously. It was cold and the heat from inside the room fogged the window glass. Trickles of condensed vapours lined its surface. It was impossible to see inside.

Kai sat on the bed, squashed between two women. His black hair was open, cascading down his bare back. Sara straddled his hips, her head tipped back and her mouth hanging open. Kai's face was buried in her neck and he sucked at the skin there. Marla sat behind him with both her arms wrapped around his waist. Her mouth was open on his nape and shoulder.

He twisted his head and took Marla's mouth in a kiss. Sucking her tongue and biting her lips. His hands groped Sara's breasts. He made a short work of the laces tying her blouse and opened the sash she had grit about her breasts. They bounced out, perky and soft under his palms. Kai bent down his head and took one rosy nipple in his mouth.

His hand slipped under her gown to stroke her through her underwear. She was wet with need and it wouldn't take him long to put her to sleep. Marla bit his shoulder and drew blood. She appeared to be a lot unbridled in bed than Sara, who lay quite intoxicated by the sensations given by his experienced hands.

Kai reached under her gown and slipped her soaked underwear off her legs. She opened her legs, inviting him to lay between them. He twisted his back a little and pulled Marla over his lap. His mouth found her jaw and he bit lightly under it. As her blood flowed inside his mouth, it brought with itself a feeling of recognition…a feeling of self.

His eyes flew open and he jerked his head away. Before he could react, Marla drove a sharp knife through his chest. It went past his heart, powering the poison on its tip into his system. Kai fell back on the bed as if he was a lifeless doll drained of its life. His arms lay slackly by his sides and his head dangled over the bed's edge.

Kai's hair lost their blackness and took on an aging white colour. He opened his mouth and let out a burdened sound. He couldn't move or speak. His tongue trembled in his mouth to move and say something. His eyes stared at the immortal looking back desperately at him from beyond the mirror.

He was already feeling himself get weaker. Revert back to a less powerful form, the one that was closer to mortals; the one that could succumb and submit before death. He didn't want to cringe and huddle up helplessly before it. He opened his mouth and let out a weak hiss. Long canine teeth poked out of his jaws. He was trying to resist death's temptations.

Black poison ran through his veins like a suffocating elixir, bringing him ever so closer to his death. Kai flexed his aching neck and looked at Marla climbing playfully on his chest. She pressed the knife further in, wrenching a painful grunt out of Kai. Blood oozed out of the wound, slipping down his whitening skin.

He clenched his teeth and gulped down the blood bubbling up his throat. Marla's face contorted and took on the countenance of the woman who held him like an animal for almost a century. "Sasha…" he breathed out, cursing her with his deadening eyes.

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Kai's eyes fluttered open. He lay still on a stone slab. His wrists and ankles were fettered to the stone with long spikes. The knife was still settled inside his chest, stabbed through his heart. Every single beat pained him; the kind of pain that would have killed a mortal. Sasha and Sara were whispering, but his ears could not perceive anything. It's as if their voices fell on deaf ears. He was mortally weakened.

"How do you still live?" he managed after a long pause, breathing in the strange smell of something burning in ethanol. They were burning his blood with something else, something he couldn't quite tell apart from his own essence.

Sasha walked up to him and leaned down to lick away a few drops of blood trickling down his lips. He was dying … he could tell. "Your blood saved me," she splayed her fingers over his features and playfully pinched his lower lip.

"I curse the day I let you feed on my blood," he rumbled, coughing up more blood. Its rusty, human taste was beginning to disgust him. It lingered on his lips like pestilence and he wanted to lick it in and spit it out, but he was out of will to do it.

Sasha only smiled in reply and turned to look at a young man who stumbled into the room. He had an odd sheepish look on his face, something between earned and inherited stupidity. His eyes darted to every nook and corner before they finally found Sasha and then as if something along the lines of revelation possessed his countenance.

He looked at Kai and then her with wonder. "I told the inn keeper you are ill and have turned in for the night. I think he is satisfied," he said, stumbling over his words. He behaved like a wee boy for someone in his early twenties.

"Good, Elijah," Sasha said, looking over at Kai twisting helplessly on the slab caked black with his dried and rusted blood. It was eating away at the corners like acid and only the rough round edges remained. It must have been a white marble once, now it looked nothing more than an ugly porous stone, permeated by his blood.

His pain was intensifying, warning him of death snickering in the corner. "It's no use. You won't be able to free yourself. I am amazed how you even managed to regain consciousness after twenty five years." It's as if her smiling voice filled his lungs with sand. Her words chocked the life out of him and he arched his back, clinging onto the final evanescent drops of his own immortal elixir, evaporating right before his eyes, leaving him to die in a mortal form.

Kai tipped his head further back, directing a look of pure hatred at her. He wanted to rip her heart out and feed on the life coursing through her veins that was his. His parched lips bled and all he could let out was a feeble groan even though he wanted to say so many things.

"So beautiful, yet so stubborn," Sasha said, looking stern. "If only you had listened to my pleas. Now your burning heart will empty itself of the final demonic essence and leave you dead. I will feed on it and become an immortal. So foolish…you were so so foolish." Her chameleonic face took on a passionate expression; the kind a lover would have.

Kai's eyes stretched wide. He couldn't believe he had been cut open and his own heart was burning in athanor for twenty five years, and the one in his chest was just a replacement, waiting for him to consume something so that it could become his next philosopher's stone; his next life. The one burning would turn to ash soon, and the one in his chest was mortal … both were equally useless.

"What…what will we do to his corpse when he dies?" said Sara's familiar voice filled with anxiety and uncertainty, even a tinge of pain for the dying demon.

Sasha remained quiet for a few moments, her hard eyes calculating and cold. "We will keep his corpse till there is nothing left of his blood. Then we will burn it in athanor. We won't need him anymore." Her footsteps grew faint and she left the room, leaving Sara alone with the rueful, old demon.

Elijah paddled after her as well after exchanging a few words with Sara. Sara's face was covered with beads of cold sweat. The demon's beauty intrigued and allured her, but the gift of immortality outweighed it heavily. This was the price he had to pay for them to live and stay youthful forever.

With one last resolute sigh, Kai gathered all his energy and weaved a bizarre tangle of seduction. He pulled the strings and watched as Sara got up from her chair, trapped in the demon's illusions. She stepped forward and unclasped the key round her neck and undid the lock on his ankles and hands.

Even the last drop of Kai's strength was gone. He made her bend over him and present her neck to his lips. He had been hungry for so long that he savagely dug his teeth into her neck and sucked her dry in a few seconds. His heart pumped rapidly, becoming stronger and ethereal with each beat.

Kai sat up and straightened his back. He pushed Sara off his lap; she thudded to the ground and turned to ash. In those few fleeting moments, he sucked out all her life and spirit, leaving her nothing but an empty broken husk. He slapped his feet on the ground, his whole being shuddering with the new found life.

As soon as Sasha stepped in, her eyes couldn't even fully take in the image of a near disintegrated Sara when her throat was in Kai's hand. Blood rushed into her eyes, putting a thick red veil over her vision as Kai crushed her throat and consumed all of her life and blood. She turned into a dried shell in his hand and began to drift away with the light draft coming from outside.

His skin regenerated at an alarming rate and he let out a horse cry of a wild animal drunk on power and the thrill of its fresh kills. He didn't have time to relish the feel of it when a few arrows soaked in basilisk's poison tore through his torso. He was getting weakened again. His vision swayed for a second and focused on Elijah standing with a crossbow, readying the bow to fire another arrow straight into his heart.

Kai didn't have time to take on anyone. If he collapsed here, he would surely die. With this thought, he drove all his energy to sprout wings and broke out of the roof towards the lands up north to merge himself with the dark ambrosia. His being felt light as cool air hit his fair face. The poison was sapping his strength, but he could still make it.

He looked down and saw the young man pursuing him on a large black animal. He didn't have time to swoop down and kill him. A full night's journey brought him to the land. Black liquid oozed from every pore here. Kai's wings disintegrated and he fell down hard from the air like a bird shot down from the sky.

He skidded on the slope and fell face first on a large boulder worn thin with a thin trickle of the only stream flowing through this area. Elijah was still in pursuit. He knew the liquid will not touch him as he had consumed Kai's blood. So he struggled, and clawed his way to the entrance. His fingers bled and his legs lifelessly dragged behind his body.

Heavy steps echoed behind him, but the blackness came forward to claim him within its womb. It stuck itself to Kai's body and dragged him inside. Kai smiled and closed his eyes. The last thing he saw was Elijah looking back at him, defeated.

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	23. Suspicions

Chapter **Twenty** Two: Suspicions

**AN:** I am aware that this has been a very long time, but things happened. I lost all my data because of a mechanical fault in my laptop. I just got it back. Updating any story was not even my last priority.

Hopefully, I have gotten this story back on track. These are the final arc chapters. All the previous ones I wrote about Elijah would make sense in the coming chapters. But honestly, if I don't get any responses I doubt I would update this. I have to take out time to write things because of my busy schedule and if no one is reading this then there is no point in updating anything.

Anyhow, I hope you guys enjoy this.

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Kai walked through the pools of blood on the old floor. Blood spatters adorned the adjacent walls. Red trickled down from the roof – it was a scene of carnage. All men lay dead by Elijah's feet. Two of them were missing their arms as well. Kai's sharp claws had cut down the arms into confetti.

Elijah blinked, seeing red through his eyes. Two tiny drops of blood clung to his old long lashes before they fell down to the floor, lost in darkness. Kai stepped ever so closer, his form breaking the slanting moonlight. He stood still, halting his steps and screwed his head around playfully. Cocking his nose, he took in a large intake of breath and then gave a heavy sigh.

"Are you still keeping him in dark? Tsk Tsk Tsk," Kai teased, shaking his crimson-red long nail. "It doesn't concern me either way. Where is he? I will not ask you again." His relaxed countenance tightened, touched by anger and haughtiness.

Elijah's wrinkled lips moved, his mouth slack as he looked in horror at the long tail behind Kai's back. "You," he whispered with mortal weakness, unable to maintain his composure, "you have changed your form?…how?…you need…" He shook like dry leaf under the harsh autumn wind. To him, Kai was a nightmare come alive.

He squashed his back hard against the wall and moved his lips a little, but his words lost themselves to silence. Kai had his throat in his grasp. He tightened his hold, watching as the last bit of life hovered in his eyes. Elijah changed his form. Slowly, he turned into a young man; that young man who chased Kai so long ago through the dead-lands.

"So you conceal your true form to preach all your religious nonsense?" Kai hissed, curling his fingers tightly around Elijah's pulsing throat. "You always were a true son of a whore." Kai closed his fingers into a firm fist, breaking Elijah's neck completely.

Elijah's head wobbled a little before it fell off his body and rolled grotesquely on the floor. Blood gushed out of his neck and his lifeless aging body thudded down to the floor. His face crumpled under the assault of old age and in a few seconds it was covered with the same furrows of age he so desperately tried to hide. He was … dead.

Kai stood over his corpse. It gave off an odd heavy stench together with a musky smell of old ash. It had something to do with his blood, but even he was not completely sure. He kept staring down, moving his grey eyes over every line on his face. The old man's finger-nails were rough and caked with his own blood. It was an odd scene of funeral.

He turned his head away from the gaping mouths of the dead and looked skyward. A smile graced his lips. The moon was waxing to its full state slowly. It won't be long before it would shine full and bright in the sky. He would find Tala or perhaps, Hiromi would find him herself. It would be one or the other. With that thought, he left the dead behind midst the stench of their own blood. It was almost poetic justice.

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Hiromi lay quietly in her bed. Her drooping eyes looked hazily beyond her window, well beyond the broken clouds at the moon growing each night. The thought seemed to muddle her mind – all her friends were killed at night during the full-moon cycle and then Kai's transformations. Were the two somehow connected?

She couldn't understand how. Kai had not divulged anything of the sort and his aphorisms on humans being petty with measly lifespan and her being a silly, stupid little girl were always an anathema to her. She had to hand it to Kai; despite him over-using this immortality cliché of his, he always found a way to improvise and demean her and the entire human race collectively. The perks of being a good-looking, demonic asshole.

Hiromi let out a loud sigh, looking at the drape of clouds moving further away north, leaving the moon alone in the night sky. The book she used to summon Kai was still in her drawer. It was an instinctive thought but she turned to her left and stretched her hand to open the drawer. She fumbled around a bit and then pulled the black book out. It was still the same – blackened and old.

The three pages she and her friends used to summon Kai were tucked away between the pages of the book. She borrowed the book from the librarian for one of her assignments or at least that is what she told her. Hiromi sat up straight. She pushed her brown bangs out of her eyes and placed the book in her lap.

It was a big book. She traced the corners with her fingers. Its cover was made of old leather. It was frayed and falling apart and an old leather smell rushed out from between its closed pages when she gently opened them. There was a lot in here – sacrificial rituals, demon summoning, contracts.

But nothing was complete. Most spells were symbols crossed out. She riffled through the old leafs and noticed that a lot of pages were torn off. _Perhaps, there were other thrill seekers like us who took the pages_, Hiromi thought and looked up at the window again. It would only be a few days before the moon would be full again.

Hiromi slumped over the book, feeling exhausted. She turned on the small lap sitting on the side-table and stretched her eyes to look at the three pages they used to summon Kai. Jessica and Salima … both of them were dead. They were missing their hearts. Jessica was killed seven days before the full moon. At least that is what the investigators told her, "judging from the decomposition".

She tapped her forefinger on her parched lips. The cold had taken a bit of moisture out of them. Why was one full moon skipped after her death? Jessica was killed exactly at the mid of the moon-cycle, when it would have been just a crescent. Exactly seven days after Kai was summoned.

Her throat was drier than usual. She felt thirsty. She put the book down and poured a bit of water into the palm of her hand from a small jug sitting next to the lamp. She took a sip and then wetted her face a bit with it. The dry air from the window left a frosty, stabbing sensation on her cheekbones and her eyes felt chilly and cold.

Hiromi closed her eyes and took a long intake of cold air. Her lungs ached a little from the fresh autumn air that was almost saying a long goodbye to itself, welcoming the coming somber winter. Her eyes found the pages she had pulled out of the book. Those same three pages that sealed the deal of two of her friends' lives.

She turned them and looked at the symbols. She went through them over and over … nothing seemed out of the ordinary as far as the ritual went. Nothing implied they were sacrifices for the demon. _The demon_, she thought and looked at the first page … the drawing… it was the first time she even noticed it – it looked exactly like Kai, exactly like him.

Hiromi's eyes travelled up and down his form and the small sacrifices jutting across his sketch. Kai's human form and then the transmutation at the back of the first page into a winged form and then the tailed one on the next page. All these were trigged by different phases of the full and half moon within the lunar cycle.

Hiromi skittered her hand through her bed-hair. It was ghastly and unnerving. Kai transformed every time one of her friend was killed. But he assured her that he only fed on his summoners' spiritual energy. No, but they were secondary summoners. What did he mean by that? She picked up the second page … only then she realized something; the numbers at the bottom of the page were missing. A large part of the bottom of all three pages was cleanly cut off.

She quickly picked up the book and measured the pages. These pages were far too big for this one. Hiromi's face broke out in cold sweat – these pages were not from this book at all. Where did Mariah even get these? Did she get these from some other book? But all of them were sold out to Occult enthusiasts a while back.

Hiromi fisted her hair. This was bad. She had nothing to compare these to. She brought the pages close to her face and squinted at the writings. All paragraphs were neatly separated. No wonder she didn't notice it at first. It was Mariah's idea anyway, she just played along. The rest of the writing was in form of symbols and it did seem to continue onwards well before the page ended.

What kind of ritual did they perform? She darted her eyes over the writing and intently looked at the darkening image of Kai. He was pearly white in the first drawing and then, he appeared to be tainted by something black on the next before he grew his wings. The blackness seemed to imbue half his tailed form. But the final page … it had nothing she could use to untangle this juggernaut.

She turned up the light of her lamp. The bottom of page three had a small portion of Kai's drawing. Her eyes stretched out, her hands trembling. These were two thick horns. What did he transform into? A devil? She noticed he had become aggressive; the threats, the clear warnings, the scent… all of them had greatly intensified.

He was no longer the docile beautiful creature that came to her room. He was this mysteriously beautiful omen – the harbinger of death. She had incarcerated herself in a tight prison built by this demon. He was not letting her go and she knew she had nowhere else to run. What will she do now? Let him kill her?

Hiromi looked down at the third page again. Her eyes glazed over. It hinted at a partial final transformation right on the full moon. But the last page was blacked out. It was an automatic thought but it dawned on her finally; this page was never blacked out, it was that same blackness that had utterly consumed Kai's form that he was no longer visible.

The pages fell on her lap. Kai was going to kill her. He had killed two of her friends in clock-wise order. But he told her … her assured her. It had to be Tala. He threatened to kill her family. It had to be him. Kai had no reason to wait it out. But the lunar cycle had everything to do with his transformations.

"What am I going to do," Hiromi breathed out miserably, crying into her hands. She was far too weak to fight him. Mariah was next and then… it would be her; left heartless under a waxing moon. But wait, Kai only had three transformation stages. Would she be spared? It was selfish but she felt a huge burden lift itself off her chest.

It was as if she found her wind again. She felt guilty, scared, and cruel but it was a human thought. She had to tell Mariah somehow. Tomorrow would be the night of the full moon. She could tell her at the university. It was no harm to break this out to her in the morning.

Suddenly, she felt very sleepy as if a huge dark weight was pressing itself down on her. She folded the pages and hid them under her things in the drawer together with the book and fell into her bed. Her vision was getting hazy. Everything floated around her. It was just like that dream she had about Kai.

The dream repeated itself again and trickles of red glowed in her room. Kai stretched his hand inside the window and came into her room on all fours. He stuck himself to the room's wall. His tail flicked behind him; it was strangely thick and hard looking with a sharp tip. It looked like a deadly silver spear.

The dragon's tattoo on his back looked more alive than ever. It wriggled under his skin, begging to come out. His hair hung down like a silver cascade under the moon-light. Even with all these transformations, he looked overwhelmingly beautiful. Kai tipped his head back and looked down at her. Hiromi returned his empty gaze dreamily, gathering herself up to a sitting position.

Sleep soon left her as she became used to his suffocating but delicious scent again that tickled and aroused her every time. Kai climbed down onto the floor and stood erect, his expressions hard and far less alluring than she remembered them. She waited for him to say something but he stood there silently, unblinking and ghostly.

When he didn't say anything, Hiromi picked up the courage to speak, "you look irritated. Is it because of something I said?" She watched him retreat back to the window. Only now it occurred to her what fascinated him about it; the moonlight shone directly through it.

"This is a surprise," he said calmly, looking at his nails that looked far too hard even for him. "Why are you concerned for me? Don't worry, it won't affect anything you ask of me. I will still play nicely with you." He threw her a lusty smile and turned slightly to face her.

Hiromi sat upright and thought about getting something out of him, but his words '_don't even try to fool me_' rang loudly in her ears. Hiromi knew she was outmatched but she had to try anyway. It's not like this could get any worse. "You said something about secondary summoners," she began, watching as nothing disturbed his beautiful features, "what did you mean by that?"

Kai placed his knuckle under his chin. He thought about something for a fleeting moment and then met her brown eyes. "It means just that – secondary summoners," he said and folded his arms, whisking his tail as if he was swatting flies. "I have no obligations to them. They are only conduits of spiritual energy to summon me. Is that all you wanted to know. How much of the spell do you even know?" A meaningful smile turned his lips up a little to reveal his long canine teeth.

He knew … he knew she was in the dark. Was he playing her? It didn't matter. As long as she didn't say anything to rile him, she should be fine. She breathed in heavily and said, "why does it matter."

"So not much, if I gather from this attempt at being clever," he said and laughed loudly. "You are such a silly girl, Hiromi. That is no way to get through life. Be clever, or you will die someday. People like you always do."

"Is that another threat?" she said rather breathlessly. Her own weak voice surprised her and to her shock, the demon didn't take any offense this time.

"No, advise. And I don't even give those too often. Is this about Jessica and Salima?" he asked, licking his lips.

"What do you think?" she said curtly, stretching out her legs on the bed.

"I think you are being foolish as usual. They are dead. You are alive. Leave it at that or do you want to play the role of a desperate truth-seeker? So foolish," he said in a low voice, his gaze bearing down on her.

"Did you kill them?" she asked honestly, arousing no emotion from the old demon who maintained his calm and carefree look.

"Do you think I did?" he said, creating another riddle as if he was talking to a small child.

"Maybe," she whispered, averting his eyes that hid secrets of a old age and things beyond humanity.

"Believe whatever you want," he said, shocking Hiromi. "I couldn't care less about your beliefs or the truths you keep tangling yourself with. They were secondary summoners, humans… their lives mean nothing to me. Does this satisfy your tiny curiosity? I hope you were not expecting something grand. Shame…" He cracked his knuckles and drew his nails slightly in.

"They," Hiromi broke off, her throat burning, "they were my friends. Someone killed them. I don't know who. But I will find out and I will make them pay."

"By all means. This would be interesting though." Kai chuckled and hunched his shoulders. "Do you need anything or should I leave? I have matters to attend to. Tala is loose and so is his little gang of followers," he said, bringing out his wings. He was ready to fly away again.

Hiromi looked away, defeated. She didn't want to meet his eyes and give in to her desires this time. "No, you can go. Just be back before tomorrow's nightfall," she said, looking at him statre at her in an innocent and curious manner.

"All right," he said and flew out of the window like a bird. He disappeared quickly behind the veil of night and distance.

Hiromi keep looking in his wake. She didn't learn anything. Kai didn't care what she thought about him. She was certain he didn't kill them. He had no reason to lie to her. He was too strong for lies. Tala … she had to find him… it was the only way to save Mariah.

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	24. My Father

**Chapter Twenty Three:** My Father

**Rating Warning**: Mild Sexual Content.

AN: I will complete this story with a few more chapters and then its starting chapters will be rewritten, as I believe this fiction started on a rather bubbly note – not the direction I intended.

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The day was warm; sunrays slating down the corrugated roofs of houses to the left of the street. The road was strewn with dead sakura flowers. They had lost their pink hues and lay crumpled and smashed under the nearly bare trees. Their naked branches swayed slightly with the steady and gentle wind that betrayed the autumn season – it would soon be too cold to bear.

Hiromi sat alone on the pew in a cascade of sakura petals still falling down on her dark brown sweater. She didn't flick them off and absent mindedly smoothed out the wrinkles on her skirt. She looked skyward at the clouds starting to pile up at the far end of the horizon. The sun hung low, just dangling like a large glowing golden ball in the sky.

The thought kept haunting her like a lingering spirit from beyond life; soon it would be night and soon the moonlight will break through the barriers of the day. Death was waiting beyond the mantle of day, waiting to claim its next victim. She dropped her eyes down to the grass, frizzled by the chill in the air.

Everything seemed dead – suddenly death felt everywhere around her. The flowers, the grass … her friends, all under the dreadful and cruel grasp of something that was inevitable for them all, even her. _But not Kai_, the thought suddenly came to her mind and a surge of envy made her feel disgusted with Kai and his demonic eternal beauty.

Hiromi clenched her fist and her teeth as if the thought of mortality pained her, all of her memories. The fact that she would die and Kai would remain made her feel destitute and desolate, when she would finally be buried deep under the mound in a graveyard. Or maybe she will not have a rotting body at all, just a few ashes locked up in an urn.

She had never been devastated by all this … then why now? Everything about Kai reminded her of her struggle in life and that she was destined to lose before it, that inevitable silhouette that would sneak itself onto her and steal her life from her. Even if she would want to live, wriggle and thrash about in its pitiless clutches, it would never let her go without sucking out the final dregs of her life and leaving her body barren and empty … just like the ground, these trees, and her friends.

Why did it worry her so much? Kai assured her that he would protect her that he would keep her safe … but something dreadful kept wrenching at her heart. It thumped loudly, its sounds beating in credence with the life that still coursed through her veins. She was a young woman, but as the years would drag on, her skin would bear the marks of age. Soon it would bear the furrows of her life's hidden memories upon itself like marks on the beaten track of long years.

But Kai … he would remain young, forever youthful and beautiful, safe from the plague of age and being human itself. But she had to remind herself yet again that Kai was not human, he only looked like one. She wanted to be like him and yet he denied her his own blood … that melted philosopher's stone soldered to immortality – it had life eternal in its every drop.

Hiromi caught her breath in a weary sigh and then suddenly a single tear broke through and slid down her frost-bitten cheek. She didn't want to end up like people, old and weary and forlorn as the youth that would slowly let her go. No, she would talk to Kai, make him listen. She deserved it as much as his any other summoner.

"You haven't left for home?" Mariah said, standing next to the pew. Her voice broke Hiromi's thoughts. She looked up at her, screening her eyes with her hand.

"I was waiting for you," Hiromi said, picking up her bag and standing up to face the petite girl who loved dying her hair pink.

"It's already four pm," she paused and looked around as if searching for someone amongst the sparse huddle of students sitting here and there in the front lawn, "let's go. Unless …"

"Unless … what?" Hiromi asked, starting for the road to their right.

"Nothing," Mariah said, striding next to her; she had to take quick steps to match her friend's pace. "I thought you were waiting for Tyson."

"At least you are relaxed," Hiromi breathed out, her voice had that note of irritation.

"Come on, this isn't fair," Mariah protested, stopping under a large Sakura tree. "They were my friends too. Everyone has their own coping mechanisms."

"Salima was always so helpful; she cared about you, and you?" Hiromi asked, raising her voice. "You don't care about anyone but yourself don't you? You know, you have always been this way. You stole her boyfriend, always came to my house just to see my dad, and you slept with Jessica's boyfriend as well, didn't you?"

"Hiromi, you don't have to…"

"Shut up," Hiromi spat out, her features contorting with rage; Mariah, Tyson, and even Kai … they were all making a fool of her. Her best friend was dead and god knows what the killer wanted with all of them. "I bet you would even deny trying to steal that one guy I brought to University that day?"

"What are you talking about? What guy?" Mariah asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

"You would stoop this low?" Hiromi's voice dropped down to a whisper, her nostrils flaring. "Now you are even denying you met Kai? I … I don't believe you."

Mariah's eyes were brimming with tears. She inhaled nosily and opened her trembling lips to speak, "you don't have to be so mean, Hiromi. I don't know any Kai. I swear it. I don't know what you are talking about…"

"You … bitch," Hiromi said hatefully, staring at the look of disbelief on Mariah's tear-streaked face. She didn't wait there a second longer and started walking, leaving Mariah there alone beneath the tree. She wouldn't let Mariah betray her with any more of her lies. She was through with her.

"Hiromi … w-wait…" Mariah called out, her voice wobbling with tears. "I am sorry, I swear … I don't know any Kai. Hiromi … Hiromi… I love you. You are my only friend. H-Hiromi…"

Mariah's shaking voice didn't carry over the sound of the wind and the last of her words barely wafted to Hiromi's ears, who had already increased the gap between them as she took long quick strides to get home to Kai. She didn't look back and kept walking, building up the courage to speak to her demon lover. Or maybe, she had given their relationship some kind of status. But who was he, if he wasn't her lover?

The thoughts befuddled her mind but she was strong today. Hiromi stopped before the gate to get her wind. Her eyes travelling to the open window … he was here. She curled her fingers on the wooden gate and stepped on the stones of their large garden. Her mother's bonsai trees were beginning to wilt away under the weather and the rose bushes in the garden had lost all their roses by now.

Winter didn't herald the beginning of life, it ushered death everywhere. But Hiromi didn't care what winter brought inside her ripe belly. Today was all about her. Slowly she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. The house was empty. Her parents were out for the weekend. She took off her shoes and stepped on the wooden floor. It creaked a little under her feet. She looked around, as if cautious of someone and inhaled sharply … there was a wonderful scent in the air.

It bewitched her senses. Kai always smelled wonderful and beautiful. But it was different than before, powerful and enchanting … it felt like a spell. Hiromi's eyelids began to droop. Her vision swayed and she felt as if she was drowning underwater but she didn't feel like straining her body to fight against its power.

Her inner thighs were getting slippery from signs of her own arousal. The scent was weighty, it almost suffocating her. Slowly, she climbed up the stairs to her room. As Hiromi drew near, the scent grew more intense, almost palpable, as if she would touch it if she extended her hand. She opened the door, feeling trapped in a dreamy state and stepped in. There he was, bowing down on the floor like a welcoming serf, his welcoming sounds horse and raspy.

Hiromi squashed her back against the door, the haze clearing from her brown eyes still filled with lust against her will. Kai was going through another transformation. He slapped his right hand down, clenching his fingers and dragging his long nails on the wooden floor. His backbone wriggled underneath his skin grotesquely and thin spikes poked out of his back.

His hair grew longer right before her eyes and when he snapped his head up to look at her, his eyes had that look of hunger and feral intensity that scared the life out of her. As she moved her eyes around, she espied horns adorning his head on both sides … those pages didn't lie. What was he turning into?

"Enjoying the spectacle?" he said suddenly, startling her. Slowly, he sat up, his head still bowed down as if something still burdened and pained him.

"I don't think any of this is enjoyable," Hiromi said in a small voice, deciding to keep her distance from him.

He made a mocking expression and got to his feet. "You have matured," he said sarcastically and leaned against the wall next to the table, "is this what you humans call … miracles?" He gave a soft laugh and then suddenly decided to become a silent monk again. This habit of his always annoyed her. She didn't say anything in response and oddly … this time, her silence piqued his curiosity.

"Ah, you want something," Kai said in a voice of a man who had just triumphed. "Come on, don't be shy … what do you want?"

"It depends on what you are willing to give," Hiromi said softly, wearing no expression as a fitting mask.

"You don't want to play games with me, naughty little girl. You know that, don't you?" Kai said with slow pregnant pauses. His face hinted at nothing, just that same playful smile haunted his expressions like a readymade solution for a small show of civility. Though he was beyond such artificial manners, he opted for them often just to mock her ever now and then.

"Fine, I want your blood. Is that direct enough for you?" Hiromi said, watching his countenance that didn't falter. He looked at her with nothing but curiosity on his face and playfulness glinting in his eyes. The beautiful demon … just this once was lost for words or … he simply didn't know how to let go of this curiosity of his. Curiosity may have killed the curious cat, but Kai had evolved beyond this metaphor some thousands of years ago.

"Why?" came the small question from the demon who had not dropped his gaze or his interest in this whole matter. He was actually smiling from ear to ear and somewhere at the back of her mind, Hiromi found it quite innocent for someone like Kai.

"Why do you think? I thought you were smart and a genuine know-it-all?" Hiromi said not looking away and holding her bold gaze.

"You poor thing," Kai said with smile in his voice, "is this because of all these deaths around you? You humans have such short lives and you race through them in the blink of an eye. Yet you all think how this youth will last forever. Isn't that right?" That same sardonic smile came over his features, flickering with a haughty expression. She hated him, his beauty, his whole existence.

"Aren't you honest," Hiromi said hatefully, trickling malice out of her eyes for him to see. He didn't seem to care much for it. After all, it was his choice to give it to her or not. She was at his mercy because of her own desires.

"I wouldn't say that. I sometimes like lying as well. It's enjoyable," he said and winked at her. "Now what to do about this request of yours? You have thrown this at an odd sort of time. I wonder …" He was quiet again, thinking about something. He turned around and looked outside the window and that's when Hiromi saw the tattoo on his back visible from between the curtain of long hair… it looked like a black smudge; its lines an indistinguishable mess. It was alive, moving under his skin like small parasites. Was it this blackness that would consume him?

"Why is this an odd time?" Hiromi asked, looking from the disgusting looking tattoo on his perfect back to the serene face that awaited the arrival of the night.

"You ask too many unnecessary questions. Have I told you that?" Kai said, turning around slowly to meet her eyes. He stood silent for a few fleeting seconds and then raised his hand. He bit into his forefinger and a single drop oozed out of the small wound. The wound disappeared and the blood made Hiromi move her legs on their own.

She stood close to Kai and kept looking down at the red blood drop right at the tip of his finger. "Take it, but know this," he paused, forcing Hiromi to look up at him, "this will only prevent you from getting old. You will never know illness, but your body will remain human, susceptible to injury, harm, and even death."

"But … why? I thought you…"

"Because it's just a single drop of blood. You will heal better than others, much better. But any mortal wound will kill you. I am unsure whether you will be able to generate limbs or not. You can always try by cutting off your little pinky and seeing the effects. Just for fun," he said with a wonderful lilt to his voice. His honesty disgusted Hiromi. "Consider this me being generous, given how much you irritate me."

Hiromi touched the droplet with her forefinger. It clung to hers like a small, rippling ruby. She brought it to her lips and cast one glance at Kai before she sucked it in with her lips. Her body felt cold suddenly and a single spark ran up her spine. Something felt different. A veil of calm covered her heart and as if it had been assured, it beat slowly and wonderfully under her breast. She knew she was different … somehow, she just knew. Was it that easy for Kai? How unfair life was for her.

"Thank you," Hiromi gasped out, looking up at him. Kai merely smiled and said nothing. She stretched on tip-toes and kissed his warm lips.

"You sure are demanding today," Kai said and returned her kiss passionately. He lead her to the bed and when he took her, she felt that this time … she truly felt completed by him. It was a desperate thought but she loved it regardless.

# # # # # #

Hiromi felt a strange uplifting feeling as she sauntered for the front door of Mariah's house. Perhaps she was cruel to her. Maybe she didn't remember? But it was so like Mariah to act like a forgetful drunkard to get sympathies. As these thoughts raced through her mind, the road bathed in moonlight drew her attention to itself.

She looked up, lost and clasped by the pure light … it was full moon today and Kai was gone by the time she woke up after their intimate time together. Still lost in thought, she approached the front door. But as she stretched her hand, she noticed that the front door was ajar.

"No…" she breathed out and pushed the door. It creaked open. The inside was pitch-black. She peered into the back of the hall and saw a grey light travelling downstairs. Mariah was awake. She stole her way inside. Mariah told her that her parents were out and she wanted Hiromi to come over – she had left more than a dozen messages on her mobile.

Moaning sounds wafted to her ear. Was Mariah with someone? Slowly she climbed the stairs and stood behind the shaft of grey light coming out of the room. What greeted her knocked the wind out of her lungs. Her father was … making love to Mariah. She slapped her hands on her lips, her eyes betraying her as she saw her loving father fondle Mariah's breasts and touch her between her legs.

He moved slowly within her and Mariah gripped his shoulders, looking ecstatic. It couldn't be true … it had to be a lie. His father couldn't betray his mother this way. Hiromi's cheeks were streaked with tears. She couldn't help but keep looking, gripped by disbelief. A part of her wanted to walk in on them, but she didn't want to shame her father.

She looked away but her gaze somehow found them again. Still caught between the choices of running away or confronting her father when she saw her father's hand transform. Nails jutted out of his fingers and in one swift motion he drove it into her heart. A tiny sound burned in her throat but Hiromi pressed her hands down hard and slinked further back under the mantle of shadows.

Her eyes two large saucers as she saw this thing that looked like her father open its mouth wide, so wide that it began to tear up like an old seam in a quilt. He consumed it whole, and ran his tongue over his lips. Hiromi stepped back and a creak sounded under her feet. It snapped its head in her direction, its eyes searching for someone. A look of amusement came over them as they momentarily stopped in Hiromi's direction … but then … it looked ahead and ran out of the window so fast that Hiromi thought it had simply disappeared.

Hiromi's heart was beating in her ears. She felt as it would jump into her mouth. Her whole body was trembling with a brush with death. Moments passed, when she finally moved her wobbly legs and opened the ajar door. There on the bed lay Mariah, naked without her heart. Her face … it was just like Jessica and Salima … serene and within the clasp of lust.

Her eyes ran all over her body and that's when she saw her clutching a tuft of hair … hair as red of blood. It was Tala's doing and come another half moon … she was next …

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	25. A Stranger in the Woods

**Chapter Twenty Four**: A Stranger in the Woods

AN: I literally forgot about this story. I am sure my readers must be really made at me. But, I am making an effort to finally end it. Two more chapters and this story is finished. Please, bear with me a little while longer.

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Hiromi sat next to the fireplace, throwing in a bale of papers. They were the pages that helped her summon Kai. They crackled and curled up, and in mere seconds, they turned to ash. She blinked, feeling the heat on her skin. They were useless now. She got what she needed from Kai; intimacy and youth. It was wise to send him back now.

She didn't want to become involved in Tala and his war. She was still a mortal, still fragile and vulnerable to death. She had made up her mind. Tala was bent on killing her and after that night … she just couldn't bring herself to look at her father. It was selfish and absurd, but those same grotesque images kept playing over and over in her head.

Hiromi drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around herself, turning her head slightly to look at her father from beyond the curtain of her brown hair. He sat before the table, drinking his late night tea with a newspaper in hand. This was how Yuu usually spent his nights at home with his family. Today was no different. It didn't even matter to him that Mariah was dead. _Yes, he hated her,_ she thought, childishly spinning her thoughts.

He must have been relieved that another influence was gone from her life. She felt a strong surge of hatred for this man … even though she was sure that she didn't love anyone more than him. With a deep sigh, Hiromi put her head between her knees; she was just looking for someone to lay the blame on. It was her fault that she didn't share her suspicions with her friends … and now they were dead because of her.

She felt guilty, reeling from shock. It was true, she did this. Mariah was buried only yesterday and police came by to check the house. Her father was furious. But she had found the body. It was odd after all that all of her friends died the same way … all of them, but her. Some girls sent her messages that people were talking about her in the University behind her back. They thought she was the killer.

Hiromi grit her teeth angrily, stifling the sob and smoothing hair behind her ear. She wiped her tears on her hand and squashed her face against her knees. _Let them talk_, she thought. They would die, all of them, and she would be the only one left. She could make new friends. It was not like they ever stopped talking. First it was her virginity and now … they had branded her a cold and heartless killer. It was always something with them … and she was always the target.

She didn't care anymore. What was done couldn't be undone. She could have sent Kai back after the first murder, but she didn't. She wanted him like a selfish little child, all to herself. She desired the immortality he so flaunted in her face every single day. He made her feel vulnerable, old, and eternally deprived, even humiliated by the reality of death her kind presented. She was just a part of the cycle of life.

Hiromi's lips curled up in a smile. _The cycle of life?_ she questioned. What was that to her now? She was beyond such mortal shenanigans. She felt new, invigorated. Last night she checked her back … only to find that the scars from a childhood accident were long gone, disappeared, leaving her back smooth and flawless. She felt like him, as if she was carrying these little dregs of beautiful energy within her body. If only he had left her with something more.

She sat upright with a start. The thought shocked her. _Could I have borne him children?_ she asked herself suddenly. Her face was blank, flushed with love's proper rosy hue. Yes, she would have allowed him to invade her nubile body over and over again. If it meant that she would end up nurturing his spawn under her belly, then it felt like a small price to pay … a very small payment to gain his intimacy.

Hiromi leaned her head down, and instinctively stroked her belly just with the tip of her fingers, as if she did so with more force, then the thing would burst, killing his brood. Her belly was flat. She never really asked him if he wanted to have children. _Does he even have children?_ A puzzling look possessed her face. He never said he loved someone. _Does he even need to?_

He didn't love her … it was true, no matter how rueful she looked or felt. He was a man devoid of a heart to love someone. Or perhaps it was just her he didn't love. She would ask him today. She had to, or else the thought of being without him in an eternity would drive her mad. But she could always call him back. Her eyes darted from her empty palms to the fireplace. She had already burned the pages.

But Hiromi smiled to herself. She remembered the ritual by heart. Her heart gained pace, as if it was being delighted by the presence of a lover. It didn't matter to her how far apart they would be, she would have time in her hand to reconnect them. It was like an umbilical cord of this eternal union between them, a name she just gave to their odd relationship.

She stood up, hiding her smile behind a fake visage of sadness. She didn't care about anyone anymore. She just needed him to make her eternity complete. She bowed down her head and turned around to walk up the stairs. She took timid steps as to not rouse her father's suspicions that she was not mourning over their loss anyone; that requiem had run its course.

"Hiromi, are you all right sweetheart?" Yuu asked from behind.

Hiromi halted her hasty steps and curled her fingers around the handrail. "I am fine, father. I just want to go to bed," she said and started walking up stairs.

"If you need anything, just call me," he said lovingly, and picked up his tea cup again.

Hiromi gave a slow nod and climbed upstairs. She had not seen Kai for a whole day. Where was he? She even left several droplets of blood on her window pane. He should have picked up her scent up now. But he was always so unruly with her. He never cared what she thought, or how she felt. All he loved was the gift of free mockery and ignorance that came with her as an excess package.

She stepped into the room and stood there for a few fleeting moments. Relishing his scent within the room that always seemed to possess her against her will. She closed the door behind her and tiptoed to lock it from inside. She didn't want her father to interfere. She would talk to him today that she wanted to make some kind of bargain with him.

"Wanting to do naughty things when your parents are still home?" Kai said from behind, startling Hiromi. "You are becoming more and more shameless as time goes by."

"What would you know," Hiromi shot back, turning around to face him. "Where were you? I left blood on the window pane. You just love to ignore it when you don't feel like coming, don't you?" She knotted her fingers, standing a few feet away from him.

Kai tilted his head to one side and fixed her with a curious glance. "Are you really that impatient to feel me between your legs? Or is it another demand?" he said calmly, his tone not giving anything away.

"Do you have any children? From the women you sleep with, I mean," she asked suddenly, watching intently as his expressions mildly changed. He looked more curious … and slightly amused. His eyes glinting with mockery. She always hated that look.

"Ah," Kai breathed out and then squared his shoulders, as if he was readying himself for something. "Do you want to have my children? It is all right, there is nothing to be ashamed of. After all, you just want more of what you tasted the other day. Am I not right?" He smiled and then bit his lower lip. It seemed that he was trying to suppress laughter.

"It must really amuse you that I can ask for more, given how you flaunt everything in my face. I can still die, can't I? What is so wrong for me to ask if you'll stay?" her even voice surprised her given the emotion that lay dormant behind it.

His eyes glowed beautifully like a crimson fire beneath a cauldron. He didn't say anything; instead he kept looking at her, running his index finger across his lower lip. She couldn't tell what he was feeling. His mask was too thick and too mature for her young eyes to penetrate. "You are not fit to bear my children," his voice suddenly broke the silence, shattering that last hope she was cradling inside her.

"W-what do you mean?" her voice wobbled as she slumped down on her bed as if the burden of truth had suddenly exhausted her.

"Your energy is not strong enough," he explained, rubbing his fingers together that still had those fine long nails, "you would die not long into the pregnancy. And my children would be far too weak if you were to be their mother. I don't know what possessed you to ask me this, but it would be nothing but suicide for you. Why are you always so foolish?"

"Stop mocking me," Hiromi snapped at him, raising her voice. A vein throbbing in her temple and her eyes burning with tears. The demon looked back at her, shocked. A flicker of sympathy ran across his face, but he masked it quickly.

Kai closed his eyes, letting out a long, breathy sigh. "I am sorry, but that is the truth," he said in a low voice, folding his arms across his chest. "You do not have the spiritual strength to bear me children. Why would you even want to? I have given you youth. Isn't that enough to satisfy you?"

Hiromi sniffled, her head bowed as she watched her tears plop down on her white cotton skirt. "I … I think I …" she stopped, clenching her teeth. It shamed her to admit it, but she finally realized it. "… I think … I love you."

Silence followed her confession. The demon was quiet. His smooth as glass tongue didn't have anything to say. He couldn't make any words soft upon his tongue today. He looked down at her little quivering form and felt something he didn't feel in a long long time … a little remorse. He wanted to lie to himself, but it was no use hiding his own feelings from himself.

"It is just the scent," his smooth voice said, telling her that she was feel foolish and naïve. "This form can have a powerful affect on women. You are the first one to shed tears though."

Hiromi looked up, showing him her tear-streaked miserable face. Hoping that it might thaw Kai's stone as cold heart. His face was soft, his eyes void and empty. He felt pity. She didn't want his pity, she only wanted him. Why was he denying her? "Why are you pushing me away? I am ready to do this for you? I said I love you. Why are you so heartless?" she raised her voice, standing up to meet his red eyes. His expressions remained unchanged.

"I told you …" he paused, running his eyes over her face, "it is just the scent. You would have been prepared had you read the whole summoning ritual. But since you didn't, I suppose one cannot place the burden on you … entirely."

"Am I weak? Is … is that what you are saying?" she asked, grabbing his arm.

"Yes," he breathed out, feeling Hiromi's grip slacken. "I told you just now; your spiritual energy is too weak. That is why this form is having such a profound effect on you. It is just lust. Nothing more … and nothing less."

Hiromi backed away, her arms hanging slackly by her sides. She felt defeated, humiliated. The demon had rejected her … because she was not enough for him? How would she ever be able to face herself now? She took another step back, as if he repulsed her now, or perhaps feeling that she disgusted him. The taint of her weak mortality … is that why he didn't make her immortal?

"Is that why you didn't …"

"Didn't make you an immortal?" he completed her sentence, his eyes glowing with such feral intensity now. "No, there is another reason."

"Are you still playing games with me?" Hiromi said huskily, feeling that he was only injuring her pride more.

"Not quite," Kai said playfully, licking his lips. "You will find out tomorrow night." He smiled with a mischievous look on his face that made Hiromi feel a mortal chill crawl up her spine. Whatever he had saved for her, she didn't care. Tala wanted him and he was just dangling her before him as bait. She won't be used like an animal.

"Put my parents to sleep," she said, walking towards her cupboard. She moved her clothes aside and took out the tiny glass ball wrapped in a cloth that had that one thing which could send him away from her. She shoved it in her pocket and walked past him. She stood next to the door and looked at Kai, waiting for him to leave.

"Going out at this time of the night? You are such an unruly girl. What if you get into trouble? I hear men here also grab women and have their way with them if they feel like it. They won't be gentle like me," he said in a wanton voice with a dry, cruel smile on his beautiful face. "Do you want to be found, defiled and killed by the lake? You parents will be shamed."

Hiromi wanted to say so many things, but she quelled her rising disgust. "You have already defiled me, so let's not talk about that or shame," she shot back, looking at his eyes glowing eerily from under the mantle of shadows. "I have no idea how you found out that I was going to the lake, but, you have always been strange. I am not surprised."

He gave a soft laugh. "That is true," he said with a smile in his soft voice. "I know you enjoyed being tainted repeatedly. But … you don't have to hide it from me. I know what you are carrying in your pocket. Why go all the way over to the lake to send me back? You are odd."

"I want to say my goodbyes to my friends," she said in a sad voice, looking down at her feet. "I haven't made up my mind whether I want to send you or not."

Kai came out of the shadows. He looked amused. He looked at her for a fleeing second, and said, "there is no one out there at this time of the night. I'll put your parents to sleep. But, don't you want to find out the surprise I have for you tomorrow? It might delight you." He didn't wait for her reply and flew out of the window.

Hiromi knew it wouldn't take long for sleep to overwhelm them. She stepped out of her room and slowly climbed down the stairs. It was so quiet. Kai stood next to the door. She reached out and grabbed her coat. "You can press it once if you want to summon me there," he said to her as she opened the door, "if you want to say good bye to me."

Kai's voice didn't affect her. She stepped out in the cold and started walking. It took her a good thirty minutes to walk under the dim lights of the streets. The road was strewn with dry leaves, and a crackling sound rose into the air when light wind touched them. She slanted her steps and walked into the thick forest. Hiromi's heart thumped loudly. She had never been here alone.

But Kai's words assured her. She closed her eyes, calming her heart and started walking again. After a few minutes she came upon that lake. She stopped next to the edge, peering beyond the thick mist that lay roiling upon its nearly still surface. She turned her head a little, and looked at the tree where they found Jessica's body. She couldn't be Tala's next victim … this had to end. She could always call Kai back again.

Hiromi reached into her pocket and took out the small crystal ball from the cloth. She held it up, looking at the butterfly that was still alive within that crimson hue. She curled her fingers and started to press hard … when she heard a crackle behind her.

"So that is what you used to summon that filth," the voice hissed in the empty space around her.

She turned around and found herself looking at the long crimson hair, and those same features warped in disgust. "Tala," she breathed out, holding the ball tightly. All she had to do was crush it a little and Tala would be gone.

# # # # # #


	26. Red Hair

**Chapter Twenty Five:** Red Hair

**AN:** I wrote this in one go. Yes, I am aware that I am a terribly lazy writer. But I had little motivation to complete this. Just one more chapter left and this story will be done. This chapter will surprise you with two completely unexpected twists.

# # # # # #

Their hard gazes met, penetrating, trying hard to tear down the other's defense. But all was futile. Hiromi's fragile heart tripped but then it suddenly regained its bold pace, beating and pulsing like it always did. He didn't scare her. She firmed her hold on the tiny orb, increasing pressure. She could really feel the butterfly flutter inside the orb, waiting to be released.

"Don't," Tala said suddenly and dropped his eyes to her pocket. He knew.

"Why?" Hiromi asked and pulled her lips into a grin. He was in a vulnerable position for once. One little crack and she would have her revenge.

"Listen to me," he said, his features adjusting themselves into a look of desperation, "you don't understand. If you send him back, he kills everyone in my village." He took one step forward but didn't take the next when his watchful green eyes saw her pull the orb out of her pocket, her grip hardening on the fragile glass.

"Stay back," she yelled and put her second hand on the orb as well. "Take another step and you will be sorry."

"All right, all right," he said calmly and put his hands out to assure her that he wasn't carrying anything. "I am unarmed. I just want to talk."

"Talk? After what you have done?" Hiromi snarled, her features warping in disgust. The images of her friends' dead bodies playing over and over again in her mind. She wanted to wipe them clean, rewrite that part of her past. But they were gone because of her own foolishness.

"Your friends' sacrifices were out of my control. They were meant to die. Don't be foolish," Tala explained, keeping his tone flat and his expression blank. "Necessary evils, if one could name them that."

"You … you bastard," Hiromi said and spat at him but it didn't make it more than three feet away from her. "So just to save your villagers, you sacrificed innocent girls? You disgust me. Kai was right about you."

Tala leaned his head to one side and looked at her intently. "You have no idea what you are talking about. I don't care either way. But you are in danger as well," he stopped and looked down at his bare cold feet, "it's full moon tonight and he will regain his full form. But just before he attains it, there is a window to strike him down. I have …"

"I have nothing to do with your battles," Hiromi said in a venomous voice, his whole appearance trickled nothing but disgust into her being. "I came here to send him back and that is what I'll do." She raised her hand and began to tighten her grip again. Tala sprang forward at this, his face breaking out in cold sweat, his body not caring for the chill that surrounded them.

"He would kill you as well," he said at the top of his lungs and reached out his hand to reason with her. "You will die to."

"You lie," Hiromi shot back and narrowed her eyes on him, her face trembling with rage. "Kai has no reason to kill me."

"He does," Tala said, slowly this time as he found the right voice again. "The poison I left in your body was mixed with an odorless spell. It will react to his final form. If he catches you with it, he will surely kill you."

"He took it out …"

"Not the spell," Tala said and gulped down the throbbing lump to ease the burning pain in his throat. "I invented it. No one knows about it but me. It reacts to my form only. Kai wouldn't know anything about it, because it cannot be picked up by senses. But just before he reaches his final form, he will be able to sense this as well. You will not be able to escape if you are near him."

"You …" Hiromi's shrill voice wobbled, filled with hate and loathing for this man, "… what did I ever do to you?" Her whole body shook as her mind burdened her with memories of Kai and his warnings.

"I am sorry," he broke off, looking remorseful. "There was just no other way to beat him. You must understand. I had no choice. "

Hiromi stepped back, her feet finding themselves in the icy water of the lake. Beyond the tranquil waves lay the quiet dark lake. Its centre looked black as the night sky despite the pearliness of the full moon. The silver rays found it difficult to penetrate its ominous depths. It was an eerie centre … an eerie lake at this time of the year.

But Hiromi didn't even give it a backward glance. Its omens didn't concern her when her own life now lay under the mantle of death. Even if she had gained a semblance of immortality, it meant nothing now. Kai would find out and kill her before she breathes under the sky that was eternal for all humans till the end of time. She wanted to share its eternity.

A thought suddenly sprang like a resilient spring in her blank mind; she still could. If she sent Kai back, she would have no reason to fear his penetrating senses, his appraising eyes, and his keen nose. The veil of this realm would cut off those senses for eternity if she wished. It was inevitable for him and her.

A smile broke across her face. "I don't have to listen to you," she said, her words sounding like a sharp hiss. "I have no reason to listen to you."

Tala slumped down to his knees. He clasped his hands together and brought it to his quivering lips; he was a picture of a servile mongrel. He had lost everything. Pleading was beneath him. But to save the rest of the villagers from Kai's wrath, he would even rub his nose on her feet if he had to.

"Please …" his weak voice disappeared suddenly, "… don't do this. There are children in the village. He would grant no them no quarter. If it pleases you, then I will let you kill me for the sake of your murdered friends. But those women and children … don't sacrifice them to Kai. He will consume all of them. Please, I beg of you."

Her grip on the orb slackened and a trickle of clemency fell over her heart, thawing it. Was she being too cruel? But was she really that selfless to kill herself for the sake of some nameless children? Her heart stalled madly as it felt itself suddenly get trapped inside the clasp of mortality. No, she was not that brave or selfless.

"What do you want from me?" she asked in such a shaky voice as if she was the one pleading before him now. "You don't want me to send him for the sake of some children I hardly know. You want me to die instead? Is that it?" She stepped forward, standing over him as he remained bowed before her, rooted to that spot on the mud.

Tala strained his head upwards to look at her, his tear stained face looked pitiful under the light of the moon. And then something pricked at her like an unwanted feeling; despite being so handsome, Tala looked so plain before Kai's near ethereal beauty. Kai really was not human. "Who are you? How do you know Kai?" she asked, letting that bizarre thought fade away on its own … slowly but surely.

Tala dragged himself up to his feet, looking rather composed now. The tears dried on his face quickly under the dry wind. "I come from a realm where demons are a reality," he began and lifted his eyes to the black sky as it broke before the shower of silvery shafts, "we are the Order of Holy Light. Clichéd, I know. But where I live, sometimes clichés are the only things that keep us alive."

Hiromi stayed silent, reading his face as he spoke with solemn grace. "A blackness lives in the realm. No one knows what it is or where it came from. We all call it Ambrosia. It is everywhere. It soaks through the rocks, earth, even people. It allows us to use magic and gives us plentiful crop. But when it touches a person …" he stopped and heaved a loud sigh, "… it consumes him completely. Eats him to his bone."

"You are nomads?" Hiromi asked and looked into his clear green eyes.

"Not the people of my village but others have to migrate. Especially those from smaller villages. The larger ones protect themselves with Holy Magic," he said and turned around. "The Holy Light magic was created by a saint of the lore. We don't know how it works. It's passed down the bloodline of the original Sage. He died eons ago, leaving only a few incantations in a book. He had red hair and green eyes and his firstborns were given the honor to hunt down Dragoon's brood."

"Then you …"

"Yes, I come from that line of saints. All of the firstborns in Youshay's family have red hair and green eyes. But I never married. I don't have any sons. The last sage died about two thousand years ago and left the legacy to me," Tala explained and watched Hiromi's eyes stretch wide with shock.

"You are not human, yet you hunt down a demon?" Hiromi asked in a mocking voice, not seeing any sense in his religiously driven quest.

"I took the White Demon's blood from Almira's dead body," he paused only for a second as if to recollect himself, "she was betrothed to me. The demon defiled her body. She was past the point of redemption. I had to kill her. It was the Order's wish to fight fire with fire." He looked back at her as if he was waiting for a reply.

Hiromi let out a mocking laugh. "So you are a demon yourself? How hypocritical can you get? You killed an innocent girl to uphold your teachings and gain immortality. You make me sick," she said aloud, her features contorted by a strong snare of disgust. "And what's this White Demon?"

"Kai is not his real name," Tala replied, ignoring the rest of her accusations. "We don't know what his real name is. No one does."

"Hunting down a nameless demon and killing innocents in the name of religion? You have no leg to stand on. You are an insane bigot. Would it be really terrible if your village died?" Hiromi asked, her voice filled with loathing.

Tala snapped his head at her honest words; their honesty wounded him greatly. "She would have turned into a demon herself. The demon was feeding her his blood for three full moons. I had no choice but to kill her. She would have consumed the energy of all the village to turn into a full-fledged demon. I am safe because of my bloodline and the only vial of white elixir passed down in my clan. Otherwise, my fate would have been similar. We obey the precepts to survive."

"You just told me that you use the same Ambrosia to live and use magic. But you kill what doesn't suit your clan?" she asked and placed the orb against her chest.

"You wouldn't understand," he breathed out in defeat, "you live in a freer world. We live in a world where we have to create harmony with Ambrosia. If it recreates itself in excess, it destroys entire villages and eats everything. We hunt down powerful demons so that the balance doesn't tilt in its favour. He is the last of Dragoon's brood. A powerful malice leaks from his body. You probably cannot see it, but I can."

"What are you talking about? More lies?" Hiromi said breathlessly and touched her face as if trying to feel if there was any malice clinging onto it like a leech.

"We don't know what it is, but it becomes Ambrosia later. The feeling of dizziness after he …" he stopped suddenly, overcome by a feeling of mild disgust, "… touches you. It's from that malice. Dragoon's brood had this ability. They were all white haired like him. We have never seen what Dragoon looked like, but it is said that he sprouted four horns on his head and his hair had crimson streaks when he attainted his final form."

"Final form?" Hiromi asked as she suddenly found herself getting curious about Kai's past, his father, and his mother that must have been beautiful.

Tala turned around, his eyes burdened by the enormity of the task ahead. "These White Demons switch through forms. Each more powerful than the last. It happens every few millennia. The final form has two long horns, pair of wings and a tail. Their skins harden, impenetrable by anything. Not even basilisk's poison affects them then."

"Haven't you tried poisoning him before? It has failed every time. You will just get me killed," she said, looking resolute as she eyed the orb again.

"It's because he's the first born. Legend has it that he originated from Dragoon's body first. He has his power; the power to fight off the great serpents' poison. Those serpents live near Ambrosia. They are few in number but are very deadly. Luckily, they remain on the lands up north. All animals there are broods of Ambrosia," Tala explained and rubbed his hands together as the temperature in the surrounding air plummeted. "No one can approach them other than the members of my clan. We sacrifice all the prisoners on death row and then put only one of them to sleep with a sacrificial spell. When the rest of them leave, we take the poison that secretes from its skin. It's lethal to even inhale it. Many die while bringing it back. This can only be done once every few hundred years during their mating ball. When a mass of them gather, delirious with the lust of mating."

"So nothing can kill him, but you are willing to kill me for nothing?" Hiromi asked incredulously. She couldn't believe he was willing to kill her off as well … all for a mission that was doomed to fail from the start.

"No, there is a chance," Tala began, closing his eyes as if the anxiety of the task was heavy on his eyes, "the spell I left in his system has already taken in the essence of Basilisk's poison. It will be lethal, far too lethal for him when he starts to transform. The spell would intensify the toxins one thousand fold. The lore says that that is what killed Dragoon as he disappeared into Ambrosia, becoming one with it again. He would never survive it. But you have to be near it to work."

"But I …" Hiromi's frail voice trailed off; those warnings ringing in her ears like a bad omen. A chill made her soul shiver. Something didn't seem right. "What if it doesn't work?"

"There is no chance it wouldn't work, but just in case, I'll cast a spell on your summoning orb. When you break it, it'll break all of your connections with him. He would simply forget you when he reaches his own realm. It's a simple but effective spell. Not even Dragoon was free from it," Tala assured her and fell silent suddenly, listening to the whistling sound of the night wind.

His silence made Hiromi pity him for just a second. She was not going to forgive him for killing her friends. She couldn't. "He will smell you from a mile away. He probably already has," Hiromi said, snapping him out of his confused thoughts. He looked like a senile old man unable to spin a coherent thought.

"He cannot. I wear the same spell I used on him. He cannot sense me. Not until he begins to change forms. I on the other hand know that he has left your house and has flown up south. If we make it back before he comes, we can do this," he said and looked at her with a bit of confidence flickering across his face.

"You can sense him?" she asked, taken back by this man's inhuman powers.

"From this close? Yes. I have his blood after all, even if it shames me to admit it," he said and averted her gaze in shame.

"All right, let's go. But I am not doing this for you, I am doing this for the people in your village … and even my friends," she said and walked ahead with Tala walking slowly in her wake.

It took them fifteen minutes to reach her home. Tala sniffed the air and looked at her. "Your parents are sleeping. He has put a blanket of malice on them," he told her and put out his hand. "The orb, give it to me so that I can cast the spell on it. If this doesn't work, then I will give you enough time to run into your house and send him back."

Hiromi gave him the orb and sucked in the surrounding air deeply. "What do you mean run to my room?" she asked and watched him move his lips to say a magic incantation in a language she had never heard before. He moved his fingers in air and created a few glowing symbols on it. They tangled together and seeped into the orb and ensnared the butterfly.

"He would sense it if it's too close to him," he said and then swung his arm wide and threw it upwards. It went through her window and landed somewhere without a sound. "It should have landed on your bed. Now I just need a few drops of my blood and strands of my red hair to start a barrier."

"Wait, I have it," she said and walked for the tree at the corner of the garden. She sat down and moved a rock. She had hidden a folded cloth underneath it that contained the red hair Maria had clutched in her hand when she died. She returned with the cloth and handed it over to Tala who looked at her with a strange expression on his young face.

Tala moved the folds and pulled a really long tuft of hair out. Only a small portion of it was red, the rest were white. He looked up, meeting Hiromi's fearful eyes. "Why are you keeping the White Demon's hair? They grow back over time," he puffed at them and they drifted away with the wind. "Don't worry, they will turn to ash soon. They have been detached from his body after all."

Hiromi's breaths caught in her throat. She felt a knot of fear in her stomach. "I saw you, don't lie to me. You had transformed into my father … you slept with Maria and killed her, Jesscia and Salima. You … why are you lying to me?" she said shakily, her voice losing itself in sobs.

"What are you talking about? I cannot shape-shift. I may be responsible for your friends' deaths, but I never touched them. I should have done something, stopped them from sacrificing you. They summoned Kai with you as a sacrifice for immortality. But the demon took a liking to you. Probably because of your purity," Tala said and put his hand on her shivering shoulder.

"I … I don't …" she fumbled for words, unable to take in such a cruel truth. Maria, Jessica, and Salima … they all wanted her dead. That would explain how they mysteriously found the pages. Their willingness to let Kai touch them. They made her sick. She wasted her tears on them, every single one of them.

"Strange isn't it, how people betray others?" a soft voice came from behind them followed by a gust of wind. Hiromi got blasted off her feet. She got smashed into the tree on the right. She fell down, wincing from immense pain. The collision had broken a few of her ribs.

She craned her neck and found Kai standing with his foot on Tala's neck. "I told you I had a surprise for you, didn't I? Look at you, playing with the enemy," he said, his lips breaking at the corners. He appeared to be shedding his skin. "You are useless to me now. I should have killed you. You took advantage of my clemency."

Hiromi clutched at her chest, feeling her bones heal a little. "I wanted to save the villagers. I had no choice,. I didn't know … I …" her voice disappeared in raking sobs.

"I spared you because you were innocent," he said in a rich, deep voice. "I told you not to consort with him again. What children? His village has no children, just a few young men, misguided by those ill-conceived teachings. Lies … don't you always spin lies?" he hissed, looking down at Tala.

"They are still innocents. I had to say something to her. I would do anything to kill you," Tala said with difficulty as he clawed at Kai's foot in a feeble attempt to escape his hold. "How are you still alive? I don't understand?"

Kai tipped his head back and let out a loud scream that made a shiver jolt Hiromi's body and soul. A perfumy smell exploded into the surrounding air, and when he pulled his head back up, Hiromi could clearly see two more horns sprout out next to the two he already had. A few of his white strands turned red. He stood still as Dragoon and smiled, his body effusing a powerful scent that made every fiber in her body ache for him. It was so overpowering that it clouded all her senses. She wanted him to consume her, love her, kill her …

# # # # # #


End file.
